Apples and Honey for the New Year

By: Mallory Jordan, Moderately Crafty

Being raised by a Jewish mother and a Catholic father has exposed me to many religious ideas. I have always celebrated both Christian and Jewish holidays with my families. And, no, I do not get more presents because I celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas; my presents are just more spread out.

Today marks the day of the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah. It is an extremely important Jewish holiday that many do not know about; the Chinese New Year seems to be much more popular. The Huffington Post has a wonderful article on what Rosh Hashanah means to myself and my people.

The Hebrew calendar is different than the Christian, so Rosh Hashanah and its partner holiday, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, usually fall about two weeks apart in September, but the days change. My family traditionally goes to temple each year for these two holidays. Unfortunately, since I've been in college, we only go if the holidays fall on a weekend and they both are during the week this year.

For Rosh Hashanah, everyone takes part in sharing apples and honey as a symbol of a sweet new year. The temple I go to, Beth El Zedek, always provides every one with an apple and some honey, but this year I will have to be creative and improvise.

To celebrate the New Year while away in Muncie, I have decided to make my own individual apples and honey to share with my roommates and boyfriend.




Start with just one washed apple, a sharp knife and honey

Cut 1/3 of the apple off of the top horizontally. The base should be the larger 2/3 of the apple. Using larger apples makes this snack easier.




Hollow out the bottom half of the apple. Do not cut through the apple and leave at least half a centimeter thick as an outside border wall.




Fill the carved out apple with the honey. Cut up another apple into slices to dip. Now you have a serving bowl or personal dip bowl for guests to dip the apple slices into the honey. It makes for a cute presentation and an easy clean up without having to clean out a small dish full of sticky honey.

To send you off with some inspiring words of Jewish wisdom, here is a video of a young boy singing the traditional "apples and honey" song that even adults sing on Rosh Hashanah. Shana tovah!