Ashkenazi vs Sephardi Holiday Customs

Same Calendar, Different Tables

Here is something that surprises people who think of Judaism as a monolith: put an Ashkenazi Jew and a Sephardi Jew at the same Passover seder, and they will disagree about what they can eat. Sit them next to each other on Rosh Hashanah, and their tables will look different. Listen to them pray on Shabbat, and the melodies will be unrecognizable to each other.

They are both Jewish. They are observing the same holidays. They are reading the same Torah. But the way they celebrate — the foods, the melodies, the customs, the emphasis — reflects centuries of parallel development in vastly different environments. Ashkenazi Jews in the cold villages of Eastern Europe and Sephardi Jews in the sunlit cities of the Ottoman Empire took the same raw materials and built beautifully different traditions.

Understanding these differences is not just academically interesting — it is a window into the richness and diversity that make Judaism one of the world’s most textured religions.

Passover: The Kitniyot Question

No difference generates more conversation (and more frustration) than the kitniyot debate.

During Passover, all Jews abstain from chametz — leavened grain products made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, or spelt. This is biblical law, clear and universally observed.

But Ashkenazi Jews go further. Since the 13th century, Ashkenazi authorities have also prohibited kitniyot — legumes, rice, corn, millet, sesame seeds, and similar foods — during Passover. The reasoning: these foods were sometimes stored, processed, or ground alongside grain, creating a risk of chametz contamination. Better to be safe.

Sephardi Jews never adopted this restriction. Rice is a Passover staple in many Sephardi communities. A Moroccan Passover table might feature rice, chickpeas, and green beans — foods that would scandalize an Ashkenazi grandmother.

Passover Custom	Ashkenazi	Sephardi
Kitniyot (rice, legumes)	Prohibited	Permitted
Seder plate egg	Roasted hard-boiled	Sometimes omitted or different preparation
Charoset	Apples, walnuts, wine, cinnamon	Dates, figs, nuts (varies by community)
Gefilte fish	Common	Rare; fish prepared differently
Matzah	Machine-made, flat crackers	Soft, handmade (in some traditions)
Kittel (white robe)	Worn by seder leader	Not customary

The charoset difference is particularly telling. Ashkenazi charoset — apples, walnuts, wine — tastes like autumn in Northern Europe. Sephardi charoset — dates, figs, pistachios, sometimes rolled into balls — tastes like the Middle East and North Africa. Same symbolic food. Different continents on the palate.

Rosh Hashanah: Apples and Simanim

On Rosh Hashanah, both traditions eat symbolic foods to express hopes for the new year. But the scope is dramatically different.

Ashkenazi custom centers on apples dipped in honey — the iconic Rosh Hashanah food, accompanied by the prayer: “May it be Your will to renew for us a good and sweet year.”

Sephardi custom features an elaborate ritual called simanim (“signs”) — a full course of symbolic foods, each accompanied by a Hebrew pun-prayer:

Siman (Sign)	Food	Prayer/Pun
Dates (tamar)	Dates	”May our enemies be consumed” (yitamu)
Black-eyed peas (rubia)	Beans	”May our merits increase” (yirbu)
Leek (karti)	Leek or scallion	”May our enemies be cut off” (yikartu)
Beet (silka)	Beet greens	”May our adversaries be removed” (yistalku)
Squash (k’ra)	Gourd	”May the decree be torn up” (yikare’u)
Pomegranate	Pomegranate	”May we be full of merits as a pomegranate is full of seeds”
Fish head	Whole fish head	”May we be the head and not the tail”
Apple in honey	Apple, honey	”May it be a sweet year”

The Sephardi simanim ceremony is a masterpiece of religious creativity — turning dinner into a multilingual, multi-sensory prayer. Ashkenazi Jews who encounter it for the first time are often delighted and slightly envious.

Shabbat: Different Melodies, Different Rhythms

Shabbat is Shabbat everywhere — candles, kiddush, challah, rest. But the experience feels different in Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities.

Shabbat Custom	Ashkenazi	Sephardi
Kabbalat Shabbat melodies	Eastern European modes; Carlebach widely used	Middle Eastern/North African maqam system
Torah reading chant	Ashkenazi trope (cantillation)	Sephardi/Mizrachi trope (different melodies)
Pronunciation	”Shabbos,” “Baruch atoh Adonoi"	"Shabbat,” “Baruch ata Adonai”
Challah	Braided egg bread	Sometimes kubaneh (Yemenite) or flat bread
Shabbat lunch	Cholent (slow-cooked stew)	Dafina (Moroccan), hamin (other Sephardi)

The pronunciation differences are immediately noticeable. Ashkenazi Hebrew sounds different from Sephardi Hebrew — different vowel sounds, different emphasis patterns, and the distinctive Ashkenazi “s” where Sephardim say “t” (Shabbos vs. Shabbat). Modern Israeli Hebrew is largely based on Sephardi pronunciation, which means that Ashkenazi prayer sounds “old-fashioned” to Israeli ears while Sephardi prayer sounds contemporary.

Sukkot, Hanukkah, and Purim

Sukkot: Both communities build and dwell in the sukkah, but decoration styles differ. Ashkenazi sukkahs often feature paper chains and children’s artwork. Sephardi sukkahs may be more elaborately decorated with rugs and fabrics. The lulav and etrog rituals are similar, though the melodies accompanying them differ.

Hanukkah: Both light the menorah for eight nights, but there are subtle differences. Some Sephardi communities light one menorah per household; Ashkenazi custom (following the Talmudic ruling of mehadrin min ha-mehadrin) has each family member light their own. Food differs too: Ashkenazi Jews eat latkes (potato pancakes); Sephardi Jews are more likely to eat sufganiyot (jelly donuts) and other fried foods.

Purim: Both read the Megillah and celebrate with festive meals, costumes, and gifts of food (mishloach manot). Sephardi communities in some traditions have distinctive Purim customs, including dramatic reenactments of the Esther story and community-wide celebrations that can be more elaborate than Ashkenazi equivalents.

Mourning Customs

Even grief has its regional variations.

Mourning Custom	Ashkenazi	Sephardi
Shiva seating	Low chairs or floor	Floor seating common; cushions
Mourner’s meal	Eggs, bread	Eggs common; specific community foods
Kaddish	Typically one mourner at a time	Often all mourners recite together
Unveiling	Usually at 11 months	Timing varies by community
Yahrzeit observance	Candle, Kaddish, sometimes study	Candle, communal meal, Torah study gathering

Sephardi mourning customs in many communities include gathering the community for a limud (study session) in the deceased’s honor, featuring Torah study, psalms, and refreshments. The communal dimension is often more prominent than in Ashkenazi practice.

Coming Together

In Israel, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews live side by side — and increasingly, they marry each other. The result is a generation of Jewish families that blend traditions, creating new customs that draw from both streams. A family might eat Sephardi simanim on Rosh Hashanah but serve Ashkenazi cholent on Shabbat. They might chant Torah with Sephardi pronunciation but sing Ashkenazi Shabbat songs.

This blending is not the loss of tradition — it is tradition doing what tradition has always done: evolving, adapting, and growing richer with each generation. The differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews are real and worth preserving. But so is the unity beneath them — the shared Torah, the shared calendar, the shared commitment to sanctifying time through celebration, memory, and community.

Different melodies. Same song.