We follow the lunar calendar, so it falls sometime in September or October every year. This year it starts on the eve of Friday 15 September and ends the eve of Sunday 17 September.

Rosh Hashana is a time to reflect on the past year and ask for forgiveness for anything we feel we have done wrong.

We eat apple and honey – the apple is symbolic of a round and smooth new year and the honey represents it being a sweet New Year. We go to the Synagogue where the Shofar (ram’s horn) is blown, and we enjoy meals together with our family and friends.

The festival also marks a time of judgment, when Jewish people believe that God balances a person's good acts over the last year with their bad acts and decides what the coming 12 months will be like for them.

The final shofar is blown ten days after Rosh Hashana, on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). On Yom Kippur we fast for 26 hours, and we pray for our names to be inscribed in the book of life before it is symbolically closed with the final blow of the shofar.

We wish each other ‘Shana Tova Umetukah’ -  שנה טובה ומתוקה which means Have a Happy and Sweet New Year.

Last year my daughters Jemima and Martha along with our Rabbi, filmed a short two-minute feature for BBC Newsround to explain Rosh Hashana – they did it much better than I could, and you can watch the video here. Martha and Jemima tell BBC Newsround what Rosh Hashana is all about.

Susan Wilcock is the Assistant Project Lead for the Office for Institutional Equity at Leeds Trinity University.