Chag Sigd

Fifty days after Yom Kippur, on the 29th of Cheshvan, the Ethiopian community celebrates the special holiday of Sigd. During the holiday, Ethiopian Jews pray for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the right to immigrate to Israel. On Sigd, the community traditionally fasts until the afternoon and they gather together and pray to God. In the evening after a day full of prayers, women host large banquets and parties in their homes for anyone who wishes to attend.

The origin of the holiday comes from Nehemiah 9 Verses 1-3 where it is written: "On the twenty-fourth of this month, gathered the children of Israel fasting, and sackcloth, and earth on them ... and get up on the status and read book of the law of the Lord their God-quarters of the day and quarters, confessing and bowing down before the Lord their God."