Judaism

A star can symbolize that which is immortal or the gate of heaven. According to Jewish tradition, King David had a six-pointed star on his shield. Reference books claim that the Star of David stands for creation.

According to the Jewish calendar, this year is 5760. It will be 5761 on September 29, 2000. The Jews use a lunisolar calendar that reckons the years and months in its own special way. Year 0 is the time of the earth's creation.

Rosh Hashanah is the festival of the Jewish New Year, which is celebrated over two days. The festival is observed with customs such as dipping the bread (challah) into honey instead of salt on the first evening. Directly after the blessing of the bread, a sweet apple is dipped in honey and people pray to God for a sweet year. They also eat fish-heads, carrots and honey cakes.

Option 2

This plate of pickled raw salmon, lemon, boiled potatoes and chef's sauce is a common Swedish dish that tastes especially good on warm summer days. This dish can be eaten by Jews who keep kosher food, as salmon are fish with scales.

Jews who observe the kosher dietary laws eat all forms of vegetable food. Kosher means "suitable" or "legitimate". Living animals are divided into two groups: tame (unclean) and tahor (clean). Beef, lamb and poultry are kosher. Horses, pigs and beasts of prey are unclean. Fishes with fins and scales are allowed. Eels and shellfish are forbidden. The animal must also be slaughtered in the correct way, by a shochet, a trained ritual slaughterer, whose lethal cut causes maximum blood flow. Another important dietary law is not mixing meat and dairy products, since one shall not "seethe a kid in its mother's milk".