Rosh Hashana

Aug 3, 2022 | JMW News

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is celebrated in autumn and lasts for two days. “Rosh” means head, “shanah” is the year, so the head of the year is its beginning. The phonetic association with the Austrian New Year’s wish “Guten Rutsch” (literally “a good slide”) at the turn of the calendar year on December 31st is perhaps a coincidence, but it probably just shows that terms and designations come into contact with each other when different cultures meet.