Rosh Hashanah Crafts for Kids

Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year, which takes place this year from Sept. 15-17 (2023). It marks the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve and is celebrated with blowing the shofar (a ram’s horn), going to synagogue and enjoying festive meals with foods such as apples dipped in honey to symbolize the sweet new year to come.

Because of all the symbolism around Rosh Hashanah, there’s a lot of room for crafts related to the holiday. It’s a great time to bring out all sorts of apple crafts, but you can also make apple crafts designed to be related to Rosh Hashanah.

For example, older kids and adults can make these three-dimensional origami apples from Creative Jewish Mom. (She also has some cute woven apples that littler kids could help to make.) Or try this cute yarn art Rosh Hashanah food craft that would be great for younger kids to make, too.

Jewish Moms and Crafters has a simple origami pomegranate craft that’s great alone or combined with a flatter origami apple to make a garland to decorate your home for the holiday.

Need a centerpiece for your holiday table? make a Hope tree like this one from Little Miss Party. This is one the whole family can help with, to decorate the apples with people’s names on them or to cut out the leaves and apple shapes.

Add some bee and apple napkin rings that kids can help make with this idea from Tori Avey. Even little kids can help with painting the wooden beads used on this pretty project.

Speaking of bees, these cute bee greeting cards are fun for kids to make and could be used as greeting cards or place markers/name cards for the holiday table. Get the instructions from Alpha Mom.

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Rosh Hashanah Crafts and Activities for Kids

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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