We check in with members of our community to see what celebrating the new year looks like for them.
Deborah Selwyn
For Deborah Selwyn, the main focus of Rosh Hashanah is hosting family: “It’s very traditional and family orientated. We usually have family round: my children and grandchildren hopefully, and occasionally we might have some friends who might be on they own.”
Food is naturally a highlight, and Deborah likes to mix up the recipes to keep things fresh: “Rosh Hashanah meals are normally a little bit different, a little bit special, something that we might not have all year round. There’ll be a sweet-flavoured dish or two among the savoury, as well as the dessert. I try and change up the menu and add new varieties each year, otherwise it gets boring.”
As some members of the family are no longer able to attend, Deborah often invites friends to join in the festivities: “More often than not I have the same people over every year, but sadly some members
of the family are getting old or are no longer with us. I always have my children and as not hosting parents is new to me, I’m trying to include a few more friends so that there’s a nice warm feeling in the house.”
For Deborah, the best part about the holiday is having everyone together to celebrate: “My favourite part about Rosh Hashanah is being with family and keeping the tradition going.”
Linda Lee
Linda Lee hosts nearly 20 family members each year, so there’s lots to be done to prepare: “It’s a very busy time. I have all the family over. I have four children, three of them are married, and they’ve got eight children between them and another one on the way. My fourth child is my son, who has just gotten engaged, so he’ll come with his fiancée. There’s 18/19 of us when we’re all together.” The family can look forward to the traditional dishes Linda makes each year: “The only change each year is the ever-growing family. We like our traditions. I tend to make very similar food because they love it, and they associate it with the new year. I always make ginger cake, because we prefer that to honey cake. I make something called Tzimmes, which is a very traditional Rosh Hashanah thing to have. I only make that once a year.
Naturally, hosting so many takes quite a while to prepare for, so Linda gets started early: “I’m ridiculously organised so weeks before I make sure we all know which day is going to be the day when I have everybody to me, because they’ve all got other families to go to as well. And then I plan out the meal. About two weeks before, I’ll start all the cooking, because it takes a couple of weeks on and off to do everything.”
It’s a huge relief to finally be able to sit down with everyone and celebrate: “My favourite part is when we’re all sat around the table. Everybody’s got a seat, and I’ve served most of the meal, and I think: ‘Phew, I’ve done it!’”
Anna Dyson
For Rabbi-in-training Anna Dyson, Rosh Hashanah centres around heading back down to London, where she grew up: “We head to London to celebrate with my home community and family. My sister-in-law and brother host a very informal afternoon after shul. She’s actually from West London and they live in North London, so we all go to shul in the morning, wherever that is and for however long, and then we just have a light snack and head to theirs for 4 o’clock. It’s a fantastic gathering. There’s a whole gaggle of different generations. It’s really informal, there’s honey cake and tea, and then later the full meal.”
As her children are getting older, Anna was concerned that other responsibilities would prevent them from making the trip this year, but they were still all for going: “My boys are in Year 11 and they have GCSEs so I had to talk to them and say: ‘You’re going to have to miss school for Rosh Hashanah, and if we go down to London, you’re going to have to miss more school.’ But they were still happy to go to London. I thought maybe we’ve have to compromise and not go this year.”
Anna has a particular reflective tradition which she takes part in each year: “Every year I do 10Q. It’s a website that asks you the same 10 reflective questions every year. The answers go in the vault, and then the following year I will receive last year’s answers. You can also look back on the last five or 10 years and see what your answers have been.”
However, this year, the festivities will have a particularly solemn note for Anna: “At Rosh Hashanah, your name is written into the Book of Life. This year, so many names will not be written in the Book of Life. That’s really hard this year, thinking about all of the grieved families in Israel.”
