Israel Holidays And Festivals

Arrange your itinerary with an awareness of holidays. Dates listed in this section are for 2010. In Israel, most businesses and public facilities close Friday afternoon for Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, and reopen at sundown on Saturday. They also close for Jewish holidays, which begin at sunset on the previous day. While many restaurants and bars remain open during these days, especially in Tel Aviv, for other commercial services you’ll have to venture into Arab neighborhoods. Pesach, or Passover (March 29-April 5), celebrates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Observant Jews refrain from eating bread and pastries; products made with regular flour and leavening agents may be hard to come by in Jewish areas. Shavuot (May 18) celebrates the giving of the Torah, the Hebrew name for the first five books of the Old Testament, and involves the consumption of dairy products. Rosh Hashanah (September 8-10) is the Jewish New Year. On Yom Kippur (September 18), observant Jews fast in atonement for their sins and Israel shuts down entirely. In more observant towns, such as Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva, traffic stops completely and pedestrians take to the streets for the day. Sukkot (September 22-29), the festival of the harvest, commemorates the Israelites’ voyage through the Sinai desert and culminates with Simhat Torah on September 30.

In Muslim areas, most businesses close on Friday, the day of prayer. On holidays, they may close during the afternoon, but are generally open in the morning. As with Jewish holidays, the dates of Muslim holidays are set according to the lunar calendar and vary from year to year. The most important event and the one most likely to complicate travel is Ramadan (August 11-September 9), the annual month-long fast during which Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset. During this time, most restaurants close up shop until sundown. Shops may open for a few hours in the morning and a short time after iftar, the breaking of the fast; government services are either closed entirely or open only in the morning. It would be rude to smoke or eat in public at this time. The celebratory, three-day Eid al-Fitr (September 8-10) feast marks the end of Ramadan. Eid al-Adha (November 16) commemorates Abraham’s intended sacrifice of his son Ishmael and coincides with the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, the fifth pillar of Islam (see Islam). The festivities generally last for three days and involve the sacrifice of sheep, cows, or goats, and the distribution of the meat among the poor. Ras al-Sana (December 18) is the Islamic New Year’s Day, and Mawlid al-Nabi (February 26) celebrates Muhammad’s birthday.

Christian holidays are also celebrated throughout Israel and the Palestinian territories; because the majority of the population in most towns is either Jewish or Muslim, services tend to affected less due to these holidays. One exception to this is Christmas and New Year’s in Bethlehem.

Secular Israeli holidays in 2010 include Yom ha-Sho’ah (Holocaust Memorial Day, Apr. 11), Yom ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day, April 18), and Yom ha-Atzma’ut (Independence Day, April 19). On both Yom ha-Sho’ah and Yom ha-Zikaron, sirens signal moments of silence throughout Israel, and the entire country (traffic included) stops for their duration.

Date	Holiday	Affiliation
Feb. 26, 2010	Birth of Muhammad	Muslim
Feb. 28, 2010	Purim	Jewish
March 28, 2010	Palm Sunday	Christian
March 30-April 5, 2010	Passover (Pesach)	Jewish
April 2, 2010	Good Friday	Christian
April 4, 2010	Easter	Christian
April 10, 2010	Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom Hashoah)	Israeli
April 19, 2010	Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron)	Israeli
April 20, 2010	Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut)	Israeli
May 19, 2010	Shavuot	Jewish
May 23, 2010	Pentecost	Christian
July 20, 2010	9th of Av (Tisha Be’Av)	Jewish
August 11–September 9, 2010	Ramadan	Muslim
September 10, 2010	Eid al-Fitr	Muslim
September 9-10, 2010	Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year)	Jewish
September 18, 2010	Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)	Jewish
September 23-30, 2010	Sukkot	Jewish
October 1, 2010	Simchat Torah	Jewish
November 15, 2010	Eid al-Adha (Holiday of the Sacrifice)	Muslim
December 2-10, 2010	Hanukkah	Jewish
December 7, 2010	Islamic New Year	Muslim
December 16, 2010	Ashura	Muslim-Shi’ite
December 25, 2010	Christmas	Christian

Festivals

Throughout the year, Israel hosts a variety of festivals and major cultural events, both secular and religious, that cater to audiences of all ages. The months of May to August tend to have the largest ...more