Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year festival, is observed according to the Hebrew calendar in the month of Tishrei.
Rosh Hashanah begins on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. In the civil Jewish year, it is treated as the beginning of the year, even though the Torah describes Nisan as the first month for a different religious ordering of months.
The date moves through the Gregorian calendar because the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar. Its months follow lunar cycles, while an added leap month is inserted in some years to keep festivals aligned with the seasons. Rosh Hashanah therefore falls in September or October.
The holiday is associated with prayer, symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey, and the sounding of the shofar. It begins the Ten Days of Repentance, ending with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.