11 Questions About Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask
As a Jewish person, it can get a bit tiring to answer the same questions from non-Jewish friends again and again about the Jewish holidays. So to speed up everyone’s understanding, here’s all you need to know about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, also known as the High Holidays.
1. What are the High Holidays?
The High Holidays are two different holidays, separated over the course of 10 days. The first is Rosh Hashanah, a two-day celebration of the Jewish new year. Eight days after that, we have Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Rosh Hashanah starts on the night of Wednesday September 24 this year, and Yom Kippur starts Friday night October 3.
2. Jewish new year? Wait, Jews have a different year?
Yeah, the Jewish religion follows a separate, lunar-based calendar. That’s why holidays like Hanukkah move around the Gregorian (i.e. “regular”) calendar every year, which gave us the rare gift of a combined Thanksgiving/Hanukkah celebration last year. Thanksgivukkah, we will miss you.
The Jewish calendar is also different in that each day is defined to start at sunset, rather than at midnight. That’s why Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur start at night.
more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/09/23/questions-about-rosh-hashanah-and-yom-kippur-you-were-too-embarrassed-ask/zSnIEhrj42Fue2zSChcYqI/story.html
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Thanks for posting! I am sure that many could use or would like a bit more information on the holidays and this appears to be a good source of information. 
