Yom Teruah is the first Holy Day we celebrate in the Fall.  It's a big celebration with lots of noise!  Think Joshua destroying the walls of Jericho with shouting and blowing of the trumpets, or shofars.  Shofars are ancient instruments that are usually made of ram's horns.  They can play all different types of notes and are used in celebrations, as battle cries, calls to action, or a call to repentance.  It also is a symbolization for the return of the Messiah, as we are promised of Jesus' return at the sound of a shofar.

"And The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the moth, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.  You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the LORD."

"On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation.  You shall not do any ordinary work.  It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the LORD     ... a food offering to the LORD

Holy Convocation
Gather with friends, family, or your Bible study group.  Celebrating this day with friends will make it more enjoyable for everyone. Rejoice with others!

Offering
Some versions say "food offering".  The original Hebrew says, "offering by fire".  If you want to do food- great!  Extra tithe, go right ahead!  Just offer something!  

Blow the Trumpets
Okay, you might not be a trumpet player or own a shofar.  Get some party horns, and make a joyful noise to The Lord.  Blast some music and have a great time!

Solemn Rest
God wants to spend time with you and your family today.  He's asking you to take the day off work and focus on Him.  He loves you.  Enjoy it!

Ten days following Yom Teruah is judgment day, Yom Kippur.  It's said that during these ten days, God is closer than ever.  Yom Teruah is basically a call to repentance so we can stand blameless before The Lord on Yom Kippur.  Because of this, Many people will participate in a Tashlich ceremony on Yom Teruah, in preparation for Yom Kippur.  Tashlich means "to cast off" or "to cast away".  Participants symbolically cast away their sins and mistakes from the past year by throwing pieces of bread or other symbolic items into a natural body of water, referring to Micah 7:19, where it states, "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."  

If you went to a synagogue on Yom Teruah, you would probably hear a shofar ceremony. Traditionally, you will hear 100 shofar blasts in a shofar ceremony! Numbers 10 gives some direction as to what some of the different blasts mean.  Other blasts have been passed down through history.  You might not own a shofar, but it is commanded to listen to the blast of the shofar on Yom Teruah.  Here's a quick video with some shofar blasts!  If you don't have a shofar for this year, I encourage you to purchase one so you can have it ready for next year.  You'll also have time to practice blowing it.  

Who are you going to celebrate with?  It's a holy convocation meant to be spend with other believers.  Do you have friends who would be interested in learning more about the holy days?

All right, where is this happening?  Do you want to meet up with everyone at a lake so you can hold a Tashlich ceremony?  Do you want to just have something at your house so you can blast the music?

Don't stress if you don't have a shofar.  You can buy one online from Israel or even Amazon.  Amazon also has some plastic shofars that anyone can use and bulk options so there's enough for everyone!

Bugles
 Easy Enough! Go to your local grocery store and buy a bag of Bugles.  Now you have mini shofars! You can find many flavors, and individual bags too!

Shandwiches
Take some sandwich bread, throw on some spread.  Cut them into shofar shapes, and you've got yourself a shandwich sure to please.

Cookies
You can find these adorable cookie cutters on Amazon. If using store bought dough, be sure to chill it before baking.  You can leave them plain or use icing!

Crescent Rolls
You can wrap the dough around some foil and make pockets for sandwich filling. Be sure to line your foil with parchment paper so it doesn't stick.

We took our crescent recipe and instead of making "stuffable shofars", we rolled the crescents into shofar shapes.  Even Barbie liked them!

Simple breakdown of what the Bible says and what the minimum requirements are so you can be in compliance for this Holy Day.  

Since it's the beginning of fall, apples are aplenty! We made some candy apples, and used the leftover "candy" in a silicone mold to spell out Yom Teruah.  

This worked great because it used up the leftovers, and there were no repeating letters, so I could use it all at once!  

The not so great.... I tried to make individual apple slices candied since it was for our congregation.  I watched so many videos, but they were still too wet or something and didn't work well at all.  It also took fooooooorever.  The slicing, the drying, the dipping... We ended up candying whole apples, and then slicing them.  Still delicious.  

This was such a "blast"! Get it?? Hahahaha

I melted some chocolate chips, and put it in a piping bag.  If you don't have a piping bag, you can cut the tip off of a  plastic bag.  

We gave our best attempt at piping shofars.  We had a lot of fun trying and getting ideas from each other on how to pipe the next shofar.  It was so fun picking our favorite when they were all done!

Since I used chocolate chips, they needed to stay frozen, or they got a little soft on the counter.  You could get chocolate melting wafers or use an oil, and they will hold their shape better.  They taste delicious straight out of the freezer, and they make excellent ice cream toppers that way too!  No complaints around here.  After having a special, fancy dinner for the holy day, this made dessert that much more special too!