Hey, could you post a guide on how to pronounce jewish holiday names? I want to be able to get it right when I bring it up.
Hi there!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful question. Depending on which part of the Jewish world you are living in, folks are going to pronounce them differently. To give you a mainstream answer, here are how I would write the names of the holidays in English and how I pronounce them in Hebrew.
But first-- there is a special Hebraic sound that you will see here reprsented as “ch”. It is not pronounced like the “ch” in cheese, but rather is a hard “h” sound. This is the sound sound you hear as the first sound in the words Chanukkah and Challah.
Rosh Hashanah (Roshe Ha-sha-nah)
Yom Kippur (Yome Kee-poor)
Sukkot (Soo-kote)
Shemini Atzeret (Sheh-minnie Etz-eh-ret)
Simchat Torah (Seem-chaaht Toe-rah)
Hanukkah (Chan-oo-kah)
Tu B’shvat (Too b’shvat)
Purim (Poo-reem)
Pesach [AKA Passover] (Peh-sahch)
Lag b’Omer (laag b’Oh-meir)
Shavuot (Shah-voo-ote)
Tisha ba’Av (Tee-shah-ah ba-av)
Tu b’Av (Too b’Av)
For more information about each of the holidays and special days, please check out this great link.
Thank you!
Josh