Today’s setting sun will bring Rosh Hashana, the first day of the Jewish New Year.

“It is the day Jews ask God for forgiveness and start the New Year fresh,” said Dara Rubinson, co-president of Hillel, the Jewish student organization at NIU.

Services for the holiday are at 7:30 p.m. today at the Holmes Student Center’s Regency Room. They will be led by Rabbi Maralee Gordon and Cantor David Gordon, and will include the Beth Shalom Congregation’s choir.

Rosh Hashana is a four-fold holiday for Jews. It is considered the Day of Judgment, the Day of Shofar Blowing, the Day of Remembrance and New Year’s Day, according to holidays.net.

Jews spend the day asking for forgiveness, reflecting over their history and celebrating the New Year. The blowing of the Shofar – a ram’s horn – is the only commandment for the day and is intended to announce the start of the High Holy Days. Jews consider accomplishing these things so important that the holiday lasts 48 hours in Israel.

At dusk on Saturday, Sept. 15, comes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

“It is the most important holiday of the year for Jews,” Hillel co-president Ellie Trefz said.

Jews believe that Yom Kippur is “the day the Book of Life is sealed” and God has completed his judgment of mankind, Rubinson said.

Services for Yom Kippur will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 15, in the Regency Room.

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are the only Jewish holidays that are purely religious, according to holidays.net, and should not be confused with other Jewish holidays that are based on historical events.

“The simplest way to explain [the other Jewish holidays],” Rubinson said, “is that we fought a war, we won, let’s eat. We lost a war, let’s fast.”