Rosh HaShanah is the civil Jewish New Year. The religious new year begins in the spring. Rosh HaShanah can literally be translated as ‘the head of the year’ and is also called the Feast of Trumpets. This feast is one of the seven annual feasts ordained by God in the Holy Bible. Reading in Leviticus 23:24-25:
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall give an offering made by fire to the Lord.’
Other than the mention of the blowing of trumpets, there is not much said in the old Testament about how to celebrate Rosh HaShanah. Some scholars believe that the event which was to be remembered, is when God first came down to earth on Mt. Sinai. Reading in Exodus 19:13-19:
So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people, who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.