Tag #119928 - Interview #87379 (Marim Haller)

The main holidays were Ros Hasuna [Rosh Hashanah] and Iom Kipar [Yom Kippur]. We performed the kapores before Yom Kippur. [Ed. note: Kaparot is a ceremony performed by some Jews on the evening before Yom Kippur, when sins symbolically transfer from individuals to a white rooster and a white chicken for women.] Both my mother and I had a chicken. We didn’t mix them. You held it by the legs and wings, placed it on top of your head and turned it. In the meantime, mother read the necessary prayers, and I repeated after her. And then the chickens were sacrificed during the holidays. On the evening of Yom Kippur we were summoned to perform the offostan [affasten] and we were given sweets and some liquor, without fail. [Editor’s note: The ojfastn or affasten is also a Yiddish word, means to stop or finish the fasting. This is also a somewhat ceremonious feast.] People baked honey cake, especially on holidays – on Rosh Hashanah, on [the evening of] Yom Kippur. As a child, I fasted until 12 on Yom Kippur – I broke the fast afterwards. I brought along a parcel of food – for my mother was at the synagogue, I would go to see her –, and I ate on my way there or outside together with the children.