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Jews to Mark Day of Atonement Worldwide

Jews throughout the world celebrate the holiday of Yom Kippur beginning on Sunday night and continuing through Monday evening. Yom Kippur is known in English as the Day of Atonement, and it represents the culmination of the preceding Ten Days of Awe, a period of profound introspection and humility that begins with the Jewish New Year on Rosh HaShana. According to tradition, a Jew?s fate or destiny for the coming year is written at Rosh HaShana and sealed in the Book of Life on Yom Kippur.

One of the more well-known aspects to non-Jews about Yom Kippur is that observant Jews engage in a day-long fast, ending it with a celebratory meal once the holiday is over. As Jewish holidays begin at sundown the night before, Yom Kippur begins with the chanting of a prayer ? done three times ? that is said to cancel out any agreements from the previous year. Yom Kippur and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which is characterized by thirty days of fasting from dawn until dusk, often fall around the same time. This year, according to the Hebrew calendar, is 5767.

Even though a vast majority of the Jewish population is secular in Israel, Yom Kippur is a national holiday in the Jewish state, and the country virtually shuts down for the day. Normally busy intersections full of cars speeding through are often instead full of pedestrians, or children riding bicycles or just sitting in what would normally be areas and positions hazardous to their health.