Holy Bagel! The Scoop on the Big Jewish Holidays

A brief discussion of the major holidays throughout the Jewish calendar year, along with a few tidbits about the related foods.

So, you want to know about Jewish holidays, do you? Well, lucky for you, I have a Jewish fiance! So I can help. Let's go in chronological order throughout the Jewish calendar year, pinpointing and discussing the major holidays.
We begin with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in the Fall. On this day, you eat apples and honey, a sweet snack for the start of what will hopefully be a sweet year. It's a day of celebration, obviously--but following quickly on its heels is Yom Kippur, the day of penitence, less than two weeks later. This is where the celebrating ends and the starvation begins. One is supposed to fast from sunset the night before to sunset on Yom Kippur. After sunset, the feast begins! Aptly named Break-fast, it consists of such foods as bagels, lox (smoked salmon), and koogel (a delicious dairy noodle dish that is sometimes also cooked with apples).
The next holiday on the list is the big one, Chanukah (which has almost as many spellings as it does days), in December, eight nights of celebrating and gift-giving, to commemorate the day on which the Jews regained control of their temple from the Syrians. They wanted to re-dedicate the temple to God in order to restore its ritual purity, and they needed eight days' worth of oil to light the menorah (the candelabrum). They only had one days' worth, but amazingly, it lasted the entire eight days. In honor of this, Jews light their own menorahs, adding one candle each night, so that on the final night, all nine candles (one for each day plus a ninth called a shamash) are lit.
The final major holiday in the Jewish calendar year is Passover, in the Spring, the anniversary of the time when God passed over all of Egypt, killing the firstborn child of all families in the land, except those of the Jews, or Israelites, whom he had instructed to slaughter a lamb and spread its blood over the doors of their homes, so they would be spared. Passover lasts for a week, during which one is not supposed to eat yeast. Matza, or unleavened bread (bread without yeast), is the main ingredient in the meals during this time. Macaroons, cookies with chocolate and coconut, are my personal favorite food at Passover.
So now you know a little bit about the Jewish Holidays! L'chaim!