Dates for your 2006 calendar

March
14 Purim (The Festival of Lots)
This celebrates the time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from death by the courage of Queen Esther.

April
13-20 Pesach (Passover)
This marks the freedom of the Children of Israel from Egypt. These people were slaves who were set free by Moses.
Because they left so quickly their bread did not have time to rise, so it is traditional to eat matzah (unleavened bread).

25 Yom Ha Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)
This is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt. It is a day when Jews remember the 6 million Jews (and others) who died in the Shoah (or Holocaust) because of the Nazis.

June
2-3 Shavuot (The Feast of Weeks)
Celebrates the giving of the Torah (Five Books of Moses),the first harvest, and the ripening of the first fruits. It is customary to stay up throughout the first night of Shavuot to study the Torah.

September
23 Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)
This celebrates the creation of the world.
Families get together for festive meals, go to synagogue and hear the shofar (ram´s horn). This is the start of ten days of repentance , which ends on Yom Kippur.

October
2 Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
The holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Jews are not allowed to eat for 25 hours. They also have to pray for forgiveness for last year´s sins

6 Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles)
Jews remember the autumn harvest and the wandering of the Jews in the wilderness after they left from Egypt. For these 8 days, it is the tradition to eat and sleep in sukkahs (rough shelters).

15 Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Law)This celebrates the end of reading the Torah (Five Books of Moses), which happens every year.

December
16 Chanukah (Festival of Lights)
This celebrates Jerusalem’s 2nd Temple and the miracle of its menorah (9 candles).  The menorah stayed lit for 8 days with only 1 day’s supply of oil.Lighting the menorah on each night of the festival remembers this miracle.