What and When Is Yom Kippur?

The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur is the religion’s holiest day of the year. The name Yom Kippur comes from the Hebrew for “day of atonement,” and the holiday focuses on repentance and forgiveness of sins. Yom Kippur concludes the “10 days of repentance” that begin with the New Year’s celebration on Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur is celebrated on the 10th day of the lunar month Tishri, which typically falls in either September or October. According to rabbinical tradition, the holiday commemorates the day Moses came down from Mount Sinai after praying for forgiveness for the Israelites, who had worshipped a golden calf. In ancient times, Yom Kippur was celebrated with an elaborate ceremony in the Temple of Jerusalem. The services concluded when a goat symbolically carrying the sins of Israel, known as the scapegoat, was driven to death in the desert. Today, Yom Kippur is marked with fasting and abstinence from eating or drinking any food or liquids. Among Orthodox Jews, practices such as wearing leather shoes and applying oils and lotions are forbidden as well. Yom Kippur begins at sundown with prayer and meditation, and friends commonly ask and accept forgiveness from each other for past offenses. The following day, services containing Torah readings, prayers, and penitence are held continuously from morning to evening. While the most solemn of all Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur is not a sad day. The services conclude with the blowing of a ritual horn called the shofar, marking the joy and faith that celebrants have had their sins forgiven.