Holidays vs. Holy Days

I am not Jewish and yet I teach my grandchildren the reasons for the customs of keeping the Holy days as presented in Leviticus 23. I know that we don't do everything the kosher way but we try to keep the spirit of the day that we are celebrating. I love the beauty of the Lord's love for his covenant people and their love for Him that they show by keeping these days in remembrance of His delivering them from captivity. I believe in that same Supreme and Holy God.  I also have witnessed His mercy and love in my life so I teach these sacred customs and use them to teach the children of His power and love for His children. I pray that I do not offend my Jewish brothers or sisters as I post these comments or photos of how my grandchildren and I celebrate but most of all I pray that I do not offend my God because my heart is pure in why I desire to study these things.It is out of love that it is studied and taught.

  ROSH HA-SHANAH (Yom Teruah=The Day of Sounding the Shofar orYom ha-Zikkaron=The Day of Remembering) is tied to the creation of the world so we began our Family Home Evening with a birthday party in honor of the creation and the Creator.We discussed the beauty of the world and the Plan of Salvation. We ate hot dogs and had cake and ice cream and discussed how Rosh Ha-Shanah with its blasts of the shofar is meant to awaken our slumbering souls to how fast time passes and more importantly what is important to do with our time while we are here on earth. 

Traditionally Rosh Ha-Shanah  is celebrated in the synagogue and not at home but we try to teach the customs and the purpose of God's Feasts with the Spirit of the Law even though we do not always keep the letter of the Law  ...not out of sin but out of ignorance of how to do it correctly but we try to learn.

Case in point, here are the kids with their "shofars" blasting at least 100 blasts as they bring down the "walls of Jericho"  while studying Joshua. Actually, we had this canopy up for a yard sale  the day before and had started taking it down right before this photo so I used it to teach and they used it to lounge under while the rain started to lightly come down on our activity. For almost 30 minutes straight we blasted the beautiful ram's horn shofars so I know all of our neighbors think we are nuts. (real shofars are LOUD! I don't mean these little birthday things the kids are blowing here in the photo! I actually own  2 beautiful shofars from Israel.)

 Oh well, so a little drizzle won't kill them! On with the game! I dumped 100 balls (the kind little kids jump in at a kids birthday pizza party place) The balls are hollow so they don't really hurt too bad if someone gets hit with one! Can you actually believe that I planned on this happening? I didn't say a word, just dumped the balls on the ground and.......

 War!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha! And isn't that how Family Home Evening always turns out? No? Is that just at our house?

So eventually a few little kids got a bit irritated with a big kid who throws a little too hard and hits people in the head and now they had fallen into my trap! Bwah ha ha ha! (there's that evil laugh in my head again!) I used the "war"  to teach how Rosh Ha-Shanah is the beginning of the 10 days of Awe that lead up to the most sacred Holy Day of all which is Yom Kippur-The Day of Atonement. For the next 10 days we are to focus on Teshuvah (Repentence) which hopefully culminates in forgiveness-our forgiving those who hurt us;asking for others whom we have hurt to forgive us for hurting them, and finally praying to our Father in Heaven to forgive us for the things that we have done wrong so that we can become "at-one" with others and "at-one" with him.

Ok so they decided that it was much more fun to roll down the hill in the wet grass! So the next lessons that they learned was that two of them are allergic to wet grass and hives really itch! Oh well, another childhood memory at MawMaw's house! I mean, really,what kind of grandmother actually lets their grandchildren play barefooted in the rain and hit each other with plastic balls?  But the evening ended with everyone laughing! (oh, did I mention that poor old grandma was actually involved in the battle and evidently some of the kids, if not all must, have had a few pent up grudges because I got ganged up on and had to run and hide for a few seconds!) At least I managed to restrain myself from doing this.... hahaha!

We ended with another Rosh Ha-Shanah custom of dipping apples in honey to eat as an expression of a desire for a sweet year! And then recited the customary phrase of "May it be Your will to renew us for a year that is good and sweet!"

Le-Shanah tovah tikatevu!!! =   "May you be inscribed for a good year (in the Book of Life)"

Yom Kippur is a day of fasting and prayer so I will proceed with what we did for my favorite of the Holy Days,Sukkot!

Sukkot=Tabernacles or the Festival of Booths occurs for 7 days and is similar to the way that we keep the Thanksgiving holiday with gratitude to our Father in Heaven for all that He has blessed us with. It is based on scriptures such as Lev.23:42,43 "Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths;that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

The most important ritual of Sukkot is living in a sukkah, a temporary structure usually constructed of four walls and covered with a roof of branches.We are to eat as many meals as possible there. The holiday is associated with beauty so the sukkah is decorated to give it a comfortable and home-like atmosphere.The children make paper chains and other crafts to decorate their family sukkah. Candles are lit,prayers are said, meals are eaten, music is played,scripture study and dancing are some of the activities that are done there. It is also the time of of the waving of the four species -also called the lulav and estrog--(palm branch and a citron fruit) which is a very symbolic ritual and is worth studying sometimes and contemplating if you have never heard of it before.

So here are some photos of our Sukkot celebration! (We don't have the branches on for these photos.There were storms for 3 days and lots of wind but we kept trying to keep it from falling down! That's part of the lesson of Sukkot. This life is temporary. These tabernacles of our spirits, our bodies, are fragile and break down. Material possessions are not to be coveted because you can't take them with you. It all belongs to our Creator and it is to be used in service of Him and others because "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away"

The roof is to be made of natural materials and provide more shade than sunlight and allow us to see the sky above in order to bring our Father to our remembrance. (Homework under the stars....beautiful!) After homework, we turned on the music and DANCED!!! They loved being outside in the dark in our sukkah!

The children and I have a place in our yard called the Secret Garden. This is where we built our sukkah.

There are cuphooks on the back with ribbons and beads. The hooks are where balloons can be attached or gift bags hung for parties.

 There is a custom of inviting ushpizin=symbolic guests-each day to join us in the sukkahl These honorary guests are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,Joseph,Moses,Aaron,and David. One is invited each day.All  of the ushpizin were wanderers or exiles: (for Latter Day Saints;this is a good way to teach of Lehi's family). The theme of wandering and homelessness symbolized by the temporariness of the sukkah is reflected in the lives of the ushpizin. It is customary to set a special chair for the ushpizin. This is our special chair that I made for the kids to sit in at meal times on their birthdays or other occasions when they have done something special such as baptism day.

Each day a different picture or prop can be put in the basket on the back of the special chair that represents the person of the day.

 I promise that we eat other foods besides just hot dogs but the kids like to have a wiennie roast so this worked out for our first meal in our sukkah. (Not the typical meal!)

He is very proud that he helped paint the wooden discs that we strung with beads to make our waterproof version of the traditional paper chain.

In Zechariah 14:16 we read "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles."    

Hope to see you all there on that day!