New Year

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah, "head of the year") falls on the first of Tishri, the seventh month of the sacred calendar, and is identified in Scripture with the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23–25; Num. 29:1–6). The day was marked by complete rest, a sacred assembly, and the blowing of trumpets. The Mosaic legislation does not explicitly call it New Year; that designation developed through Jewish tradition, reflecting the civil calendar reckoning in which Tishri is the first month.

The tension between a sacred calendar beginning in Nisan (spring, at the Exodus) and a civil year beginning in Tishri (autumn) runs through the OT. By the rabbinic period, Tishri 1 was firmly established as New Year for years (including sabbatical and Jubilee year reckoning) and for the judgment of humanity. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) became the Days of Awe in Jewish tradition — a period of repentance and self-examination before the solemn fast.