A Symbolic Approach to the Jewish New Year: Rosh Hashanah in Antioch

Abstract

Jews are one of the communities that have lived in Antioch for many years. Religious festivals are rituals framed by rules around many symbolic traditions maintaining religious identity and drawing boundaries with the other. Date of the festival ritual, which can be considered as a holy time, differs due to the use of different calendars by people of different faiths. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year’s Day and is celebrated in the second week of September. The start of a new year includes a number of symbolic behaviors and consumption traditions that are obligatory in this festival. The relations between religion and food are revealed through the functions of sacred or taboo foods and beverages which are considered sacred by the community. These communities transform foods and beverages into a taboo or sacred field in line with their religious beliefs and practices. This field is created by re-attaching symbolic meanings to foods and beverages in the light of religious beliefs and practices. The symbolic meaning network of foods and beverages consists of the formation of cultural memory through religious communities, holy books, religious leaders, and oral traditions and of making them objects of religious rituals. Accordingly, the reflection of the religious identities of the Jews in Antakya and the symbolic bond they established with the foods on a festival ritual is discussed in this study.