How to celebrate Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, falls on 1-2 Tishrei and is marked in four main ways:

• Hearing the shofar. The ram's horn is sounded during the morning service (traditionally 100 blasts), except when the day falls on Shabbat. The Zionist Organization of America described "the stirring call of the shofar" as a reminder that the holiday is a moment of both reflection and responsibility [9].
• Festive meals. Candles are lit, kiddush is recited over wine, and round challah and apple dipped in honey are eaten as a wish for a sweet year. Pomegranate, dates, fish and other symbolic foods (simanim) are common, and a new seasonal fruit is eaten on the second night. StandWithUs noted that Israelis were expected to eat 15,000 tons of apples over the holiday [4].
• Prayer. Long festive services use a special machzor; the Musaf service centers on God's sovereignty, memory and the shofar. Yishai Fleisher called Rosh Hashanah "the REAL ELECTION - where we crown God as King of all" [8].
• Tashlich and teshuvah. Many walk to flowing water on the afternoon of the first day to symbolically cast off sins, and the two days open the Ten Days of Repentance leading to Yom Kippur: a time to ask forgiveness of people you have wronged. The customary greeting is Shanah tovah, or L'shanah tovah tikatevu, "may you be inscribed for a good year".

Work is prohibited as on other festivals, though cooking from a pre-existing flame is permitted. Practices vary between Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi communities, and a local rabbi or synagogue is the best guide to what your community does.