Ari Horing, sophomore sports management major, celebrates two New Year’s. Like most Eastern students he counts down in January to observe the beginning of the new calendar year, however he celebrates his religious New Year’s – Rosh Hashanah today.

Horing, like a handful of other Jewish students and faculty on campus, began observation of the holiday Wednesday at sundown and will continue through sundown tonight.

Rosh Hashanah is one of the High Holidays and is considered by many divisions of Judaism to mark the beginning of the Days of Awe, which includes the holiest holiday, Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement, and Sukkot.

In Hebrew Rosh Hashanah translates to “head of the year” and is often referred to as the Jewish New Year because it marks the beginning of a new year of the Jewish calendar. According to this lunar calendar, it is the beginning of the year 5768.

Although Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a new calendar year like the January holiday, David Raybin, an English professor with a background in Judaism, said Rosh Hashanah is different from the standard January New Year’s.

Raybin said while Rosh Hashanah is a time for celebration of a new beginning, it is also a time for reflection and prayer on the past year and can be considered the beginning of a time of reflection and repentance in preparation for Yom Kippur ten days later.

Michal Loving, a Reform Jew and Rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, said Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were originally harvest festivals coinciding with agricultural calendars.

“They fell during the time that you reap the harvest, take away the old harvests and plant the new,” she said.

For Loving, Rosh Hashanah always felt like the “real new” years.

“Most people find it makes sense because this is when kids are going back to school,” she said. “When I was growing up, Rosh Hashanah always seemed more like the new year because I was going back to school, seeing the seasons change and in January nothing happens.”

Horing celebrates both “new years” but said Rosh Hashanah is more important to him because it is the new year of his religion.

“Rosh Hashanah is a happy holiday but at the same time, it’s not like you’re just partying, like in January, because within Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are the ten days where you’re supposed to be sorry and ask forgiveness from God and repent,” he said.

Horing said the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are very important not only as a time of renewal but also because this is the time when God decides who will be written in the book of life.

There are divisions in Judaism as in Christianity and other major religions, and the stream that one subscribes to shapes the way they observe the holiday.

Horing comes from an orthodox family, and attended private Jewish schools until college when his love for soccer brought him to Eastern, where he now plays as a forward on the men’s team.

His mother, Shoula Horing said most of Ari’s friends went to colleges that were a third or more Jewish, however she was not worried about the change in environment for her son. She said she believes her son has been living most of his life combining worlds.

“I think all his life he has felt unique because he’s been combing both worlds. Soccer and school, Israeli culture and American culture, he is between two worlds all the time,” she said. “He is very proud of who he is and knows to be different it is good.”

“All his life he was so sure of his Jewish identity; if you are sure and confident of who you are there is no problem of going to a world that is different, because you still keep your identity but at the same time you meet new experiences.”

Eastern currently has no registered student organizations for Jewish students and Horing said he is not aware of any other student groups besides the 22 member Facebook group “Jews @ EIU!.” Despite this, Horing still prays regularly and observes the holidays of his faith.

“I feel like it’s even harder for a person like me to come to a school where there are no Jews and to still celebrate the holidays,” he said. “It makes me feel like I’m a better Jew, when other people in the same circumstances would just conform.”

Raybin said most observers of Rosh Hashanah do not work on the holiday and will attend evening services the first night of the holiday and then morning and evening services the next day.

There is a special prayer book that is read from during these services. The shofar, a horn made from a ram’s horn, is blown at one of the services to welcome in the New Year. Depending on the stream of Judaism and temple anyone from the Rabbi to children in the congregation will blow the shofar.

Rosh Hashanah services may also include Tashlich.

Loving said Tashlich is a symbolic casting away of sins.

“This is a custom in which the congregation throws breadcrumbs from their pockets into running water to be consumed by animals in nature. The idea is that the fish and birds will grow stronger as a result,” she said.

The act symbolizes the repentance for and release of sins. When the animals consume the breadcrumbs this symbolizes learning from your mistakes and growing.

Last year on Rosh Hashanah, Horing’s parents, Michael and Shoula, came to visit Ari and help him celebrate. However this year because the holiday falls mid-week, Horing will observe the day alone.

Horing said he will not attend services this Rosh Hashanah. Horing does not have class on the holiday this year but would not attend if he did.

Although he will be traveling to a soccer game in Chicago on Wednesday, he will maintain a prayerful attitude and will reflect on the year upon his return and normally would not attend practice on such holidays.

Shoula has not left her son without support however this Rosh Hashanah.

“I sent him with holiday food when I saw him at his last tournament – hala [a darker yeasted bread] and honey cake,” she said. “And I got him an apple that he can dip in the honey, and cookies and a lot of things we do for blessing.”

Loving said it is tradition to eat honey and apples and lots of sweet foods during Rosh Hashanah for a sweet new year. She said her mother sends her a honey cake every year, and Ari said this is his favorite part of Rosh Hashanah.

“It symbolizes the fact that you are going to have a sweet new year,” he said.

Eastern sophomore Amir Horing talks about the importance Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

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