Rosh Hashana (redux)

But first, work term is over \o/ This work term was, astonishingly, the first time that my given assignment also had anything to do with chemistry, which given that I am a Chem major, is slightly incredibly pathetic. However, I learned a whole lot, which can be summed up as: Acid Dehydrations and How to Make Them Happen.

I spent most of my last day doing end-of-term paperwork. There are lots of forms I have to fill out. There's the "how was this co-op" form, in which I'm supposed to explain why this co-op sucked, or did not suck. There's the "what did you do this term" form, which is fairly self explanatory, and there' a line at the bottom where I'm supposed to fill out what I want to do next term. They never put me in my first choice position, so I only filled out the first choice this time around. We'll see how that goes. There's the one I have to do with my supervisor, where he tells me what I need to work on in my professional career. Then there were the ones from my school, which were pretty much the same thing but for credit. And then I went home to . . .

MW cooking. The reason MW was cooking was because Monday night was Erev Rosh Hashana.

To explain: In the Jewish calendars, days are measured from sunset to sunset. This is because, in Genesis, the phrase was "and there was evening and there was morning, the ____ day." So holidays actually begin the night before, in much the same way as Christmas Eve is the night before Christmas. All Jewish holidays work this way. The word 'erev' pretty much directly translates to evening or eve.

So. Erev Rosh Hashana is when the holiday begins, and I think you understand by now that, this being a Jewish event, there was extra food. MW made lamb, but the meal consisted of chicken soup and matzah balls,and salad, and lamb, and Green BEans, and and green beans, and kasha (fried buckwheat), and an entire honey cake for dessert.

This is a Rosh Hashana tradition: you eat apples and honey. It's supposed to help usher in a sweet new year. But also, because f this, we tend to eat lots of things with either apples or honey in them, so we eat honey cakes and apple kugel (noodly dish with fruity bits). So we had our apples and honey near the beginning, and honey cake for dessert.

Then I toddled off to sleep. Sleep is good.

Next morning was day one of the two day holiday. I just thought I'd mention that it is now fifty-seven sixty-niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, as we Jews measure things. We went to Shul (synagogue, for those of you who don't use Yiddish) and then we went to the family pot luck. And then we came home and I toddled off to sleep it off.

We pretty much did a repeat of that today, only instead of the family, we went to the S. family, who didn't invite us last year but who we usually go to for lunch on day two. Their son, Ben, is apparently engaged now. You must understand that I knew this kid when he used to hit me on the head with dollies. And he is engaged. I feel so ooooooold.

Mrs. S., being a Jewish mother, had made More Food. There was turkey and beef and tzimmus (it's made with prunes and carrots and sweet potatoes and raisins, all stewed and mashed up together) and apple kugel and trays and trays of dessert.

So after we came home, I toddled off to sleep some more.

The next round begins next Wednesday night, where we will have our ginormous pre-fasting meal, followed by a fast, followed by a ginormous post-fasting meal.

Why yes, we do look at holidays as an excuse to have more food. Why did you ask?