September 2007 Holidays

Children of Abraham: September 2007 Holidays

Richard L. Shafer

Again this year we Children of Abraham[1] celebrate several major holidays in September. Those of us who are Muslims begin the month-long fast of Ramadan on Sept. 13, the fast that all Muslims must keep during the daylight hours. Ramadan is basically the spiritual cleansing of the soul through self restraint. It commemorates the first revelation of the Qur'an. (Qur’an 2:183-185)

On the same day, we who are Jewish celebrate Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). Rosh Hashanah remembers the creation of the world. In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means the "head of the year." It is also called the Feast of the Trumpets. The blowing of a ram's horn, a shofar, proclaims Rosh Hashanah, and summons Jews to worship.

Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the 10 “Days of Awe” or “Days of Repentance;” these 10 days end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, this year beginning September 22 at sundown. Jews here and abroad use Rosh Hashanah as a time of reflection and introspection. Many then seek to reconcile wrongs done to other people, and to right those wrongs where possible, and ask forgiveness. Some (both Jews and others) believe that God keeps books on our actions, writes down decrees about who will live and who will die during the next year, and “seals” the books on Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur is a day of prayers, and one does not work or eat. Certain limits apply: In addition to fasting, one may not bathe, “anoint one’s body,” wear leather shoes, or have marital relations. Jews believe that Yom Kippur atones for sins between people and God (Leviticus 23:26-32).

During the Days of Awe, on September 16, 2007, Jews fast, mourning the assassination of Gedaliah, the Jewish royal governor of the Land of Israel for a short period following the destruction of the First Temple. Gedaliah's killing spelled the end of the small remnant of a Jewish community that remained in the Holy Land after the destruction, which fled to Egypt.[2] Read more in Jeremiah 40:13 – 41:18.

Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), is celebrated September 27-October 2, 2007. This festival, also known as the Feast of the Ingathering, is both a harvest festival and a commemoration of the forty years of wandering after the Jews were freed from Egypt. The name refers to small huts, symbolic of the shelters used during their ancestors’ wandering.

The worldwide Church of God, a Christian sect, also celebrates Rosh Hashanah, calling it the Feast of Trumpets. Those Christians also celebrate the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the first day of Sukkot.

Christians of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the largest Christian church in Egypt, celebrate September 11 as Coptic New Year, the Feast of Neyrouz. Coptic years are counted from AD 284, the year Diocletian became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians, many of them Egyptians.[3]

Finally, on September 14, many Christian denominations celebrate Holy Cross Day, which commemorates the discovery in 325 CE of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. It was found during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine I. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was then built at the site of the discovery, by order of Helena and Constantine.

The original name of this feast was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, by which name it is still known in the Orthodox Church and the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. Since 1970, it has been officially called the Triumph of the Cross by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. In some parts of the Anglican Communion it is called Holy Cross Day, a name also used by Lutherans. In Jewish folklore the feast was established by Saint Peter for converted Jews to observe instead of Rosh Hashanah. The Assyrian Church of the East celebrates the event on September 26, and considers it to be a major feast.[4]

[1] This is one of a series of occasional columns in which the author, raised in the Christian tradition, searches for common ground and common history among the teachings, beliefs and practices of adherents of the Abrahamic faiths -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

[3] According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Mark, Mark the Evangelist is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark and a companion of Peter. He is also believed to be the first patriarch of Alexandria by the Coptic Orthodox Church, and thus the founder of Christianity in Africa.