How to Prepare for your Holiday Celebration in Chestnut Hill in 2016
This year, Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish holiday celebrating the Jewish New Year, starts on October 2 at sundown and ends on October 4 at sundown. On the Hebrew calendar, this is the 1 and 2 of Tishrei. Many Jewish people go to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and they hear the blowing of the shofar. In addition, Jewish people celebrate the holiday with a large family gathering over a big meal.
There are many symbolic foods for the Rosh Hashanah meal. Please see below for details on the traditional holiday foods and find out where you can buy them in the Market at the Fareway in Chestnut Hill Philadelphia.
Apples and honey symbolize a sweet new year. You can buy apples from Yu’s Produce and honey from Ranck’s Lunchmeats.
Round challah is a bread that symbolizes the cycle of the year. Pick some Metropolitan challah up from the What a Crock stand.
Pomegranates are a popular fruit to eat because their many seeds symbolizes being fruitful. I think pomegranates not only taste good but are also fun to eat! It is easiest to first score the pomegranate into four or six sections by cutting the skin and going just deep enough to cut the white pith while avoiding the juicy seeds. You can then pull the pomegranate apart to get it into sections. Take one section at a time and bite right in while working around and avoiding the white pith. If you pull the skin back, the seeds pop out and make them easier to access. More detailed instructions can be found here.
Brisket is a popular meat to eat and can be purchased from Rice’s Quality Meats in the MARKET. It is tender, moist, and a forgiving dish to prepare. According to thekitchn.com, the Jewish people who lived in Eastern Europe could not afford to buy expensive meat so they bought brisket and it became a tradition to eat brisket for the holiday. Visit thekitchn.com for recipe ideas.
And what shouldn’t you eat on Rosh Hashanah? According to chabad.org, it is customary to eat foods that are sweet and not sour or tart to symbolize the desire to have a sweet year full of abundance. In addition, nuts are to be avoided because the numerical value of the Hebrew word for nuts, “egoz”, is the same as the Hebrew word for sin, “chet”.
We wish you a happy and healthy new year and hope you’ll stop by the MARKET to get your holiday staples this year.