Rosh Hashanah is Scripturally known as the Feast of Trumpets/Day of Blowing the Shofar. It begins on the first day of Etanim (Tishri) which is the seventh month in the biblical calendar. So Rosh Hashanah isn't really the Jewish New Year. Traditionally Rosh Hashanah has become a time of family gatherings, special meals and sweet tasting foods. It is biblically a day of blowing the shofar and begins a ten day period known as "Days of Awe" lasting until Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is also viewed as a day of judgement -- where people examine their lives for sin, and have ten days to make peace with those whom they have hurt, or broken promises to. It is the time to cast away sin, as symbolized by the traditional act of Tashlich ('to cast') -- where people visit a body of moving water and cast bread crumbs into the water -- this symbolically "casts away" our sin into the river. This tradition originates from Micah 7:19, "He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."