Why don't Christians celebrate Jewish holidays, i.e. Rosh Hashanah?
If I understand correctly, the Jewish Bible/Torah/Tanakh, or at least most of it, is essentially the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. As a raised Catholic (I'm pretty much a generic Christian I don't subscribe to any one sect but I'm technically Catholic) I'm kind of curious as to why I'm not currently celebrating Rosh Hashanah/why I've never done anything "Jewish" in my life, and if I felt like I wanted to, could I and still be considered Christian.
What is the origin of Rosh Hashanah?
During the Babylonian exile, Jews adopted the Babylonian calendar which, in turn, was a continuation of the Sumerian Calendar. The earliest origins of the Hebrew New Year are connected to the beginning of the economic year in the agricultural societies such as Sumer and Akkad. The New Year was the beginning of the cycle of sowing, growth, and harvest, the latter marked by its own set of major agricultural festivals.According to Mishneh (Rosh Hashanah 1:1), there are four days which mark the beginning of the year, for different purposes:1) Months are numbered from Nisan, reflecting the injunction in Exodus 12:2, "This month shall be to you the beginning of months," and Nisan marks the new year for civil purposes.2) The day which is most often referred to as the "New Year" is observed on the first of Tishrei, when the year number increases by 1 and the formal new year festival Rosh Hashana is celebrated. It also marks the new year for certain agricultural laws.3) The month of Elul is the New Year for certain matters connected with animals.4) Tu B'shevat ("the 15th of Shevat (ט"ו בשבט),") marks the new year for trees.There was a controversy in the Talmud about whether the world was created in Tishrei or Nisan; Rab Yehoshua and Rab Eliezer debated to issue and agreed upon Tishrei. For more about overlap of Sumerian and Babylonian calendars see: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Why is passover celebrated? help its for h.w.?
Well, passover is named so because of the 10th plague in egypt...the Israelites (aka Jews) were enslaved in Egypt at the time, and Moses the prophet came to pharaoh to tell him that either he let the Jewish ppl go, or God would punish him. Pharaoh refused, and so came the 10 plagues - water turned into blood, locusts ate all the crops, cattle died, etc etc....yet pharaoh still did not let the people go...so God sent the last plague to Egypt...the death of the firstborn son of every egyptian (that's significant because pharaoh's father had ordered all male firstborns of the jewish slaves to be killed off, way b4 this)....the Jews were ordered to paint lamb's blood on their door so that the angel of death would "pass over" their home, and instead every egyptian firstborn died. Then pharaoh let the Israelites go, freeing them from the bondage of slavery. Which is what passover celebrates =)
Would it be confusing to my children to still practice some of the Old Testament Jewish traditions?
I doubt it. It might be confusing for their friends when they tell them about it, but it's not really about them. Explain to them why you are doing it, and they should not have any confusion. Incidentally, my parish has a Seder dinner every year during Lent, and I take my son. He doesn't get confused, in fact, he finds it really interesting.