Tag #155077 - Interview #103673 (Ladislav Roth Biography)

On Chanukkah my mother lit candles in the chanukkiyah. Sometimes we had guests and they gave us some money. [Chanukkah gelt] This was all about celebration of Chanukkah. We always celebrated Yom Kippur at home. My parents celebrated it according to traditions. On the evening before Yom Kippur we had a sufficient dinner. Fast began after the first star appeared in the sky.  My parents fasted 24 hours. We didn’t fast when we were small.  At the age of 6 children began to fast half a day and at the age of ten – 24 hours like adults.  We always had the Kapores ritual on Yom Kippur. My mother bought white chickens for Ella and herself and white roosters for my father, my younger brother and me. They were to be turned around our heads and we had to say: ‘May you be my atonement’. Then my mother took these chickens to the synagogue and they gave them to the poor.  
 
My parents stayed in the synagogue a whole day on Yom Kippur. They began to take me with them when I turned 10 years old. Every visitor had a big candle with him. Candles were burning since morning and it was hard to breathe. I felt giddy and couldn’t wait to take a breath of fresh air. My mother had lemon peels wrapped in a handkerchief with her. When she felt giddy she smelled them and it made her feel better. My father and I were downstairs and my mother was upstairs where women sat. Sermon in the synagogue lasted until the first evening star. Then the fast was over and it was allowed to go home to have dinner.