I wish I had grown up celebrating some Jewish holidays, but we didn’t have that custom of special Feast Days. As I have read more about them, I have found significance and symbolic meaning for many things in life. The day Moroni gave the Golden Plates and Urim, and Thummim to Joseph Smith was September 22, 1827, which coincided with an astrological event and a Jewish Feast Day. Although many Pagans followed astrology, that does not mean that there is no truth in the signs of the heavens or that God does not use them to communicate with us. I believe that God does give us signs, and remembering them helps us to remember poignant events.

feast of trumpets and joseph smith

September 22, 1827, was the Autumn Equinox. This is when there is about the same amount of hours of sunlight as there is night, hence the Latin name “equinox”— or equal night. There’s also the “harvest moon” in September on or near the Fall Equinox, which has to do with the gathering in the last harvest of crops. Farmers worked through the night by the light of the full moon.

Rosh Hashanah, or Feast of  Trumpets (also called The Day of Remembrance), fell on the evening of September 21st in 1827 as the sunset. (On the Judaic calendar, this was the first day of the seventh month called Tishri–the new day beginning at sunset. Remember that each day begins at sundown on the Jewish calendar.) The Feast of the Trumpets continued on the 22nd of September, 1827. It is a two-day celebration.

Joseph and Emma went to the Hill Cumorah on the night of September 21, 1827, which coincided with this Feast of the Trumpets. According to Joseph Knight, who was in the Smith home on that evening, he saw Joseph preparing to get the plates.

The angel had commanded Joseph to come to the hill on September 22. To be precise in his compliance and still to throw off meddlers who knew of the date, Joseph chose to go to Cumorah in the dead of night, almost the minute September 22 arrived. (Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, pg. 59)
It’s interesting that we have the symbol of Moroni blowing the trumpet on the temple. (Most temples have the angel Moroni on top, but eight do not.)

Angel with trumpet weathervane on Nauvoo Temple, 1846

The traditional trumpet is called the shofar, and it’s a ram’s horn. The sound is wonderful. My son gave me this one, and he can make it work (which is not that easy.) Maybe Moroni should have a shofar in his hand instead of a modern-day trumpet.
“In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets” (Lev. 23:24)
shofar

The sounds of the shofar remind God’s people of their relationship with Him as well as God’s promise to remember His people. It is also a call to repentance before the Day of Atonement.

The Feast of Trumpets celebrates the final season for the gathering of the wine and oil — it is the final harvest.
The “Book of Mormon” is one of the means of bringing in the final harvest–the final gathering that began with Joseph Smith.
“For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might…”(D&C 4:4)
It also marks the day that God remembered his covenant people–A Day of Remembrance. Many Jewish scholars believe that the blowing of the trumpet signals the return of scattered Israel.
“One Jewish commentator has said, ‘Expectantly, we await the sounding of the Trumpet of Liberation, when Zion will be free to receive its exiled children from all parts of the earth. ‘ (ref)
It also commemorates the creation and fall of  Adam and Eve and their covenant relationship with God. Adam and Eve learned how to return to the presence of God through repentance. The blowing of the shofar may even signify the coronation of the King of the Universe — God.
The Kabbalists teach that the continued existence of the universe is dependent upon the renewal of the divine desire for a world when we accept G‑d’s kingship each year on Rosh Hashanah. (ref)
On Rosh Hashana (The Feast of Trumpets), God writes the names and fates of the people in The Book of Life. Then begins ten days of repenting and forgiving, culminating on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. At the close of Yom Kippur, the repentant hope to stand absolved before God. He will then seal his verdict in the Book of Life. Following these two High Holy Days is the Feast of the Tabernacles.
The shofar was blown in the evening of September 21, 1827, and again on the 22nd — and Joseph was preparing to receive the Gold Plates, opening the dispensation of the Fullness of Times, when God extended his mercy remembered his covenant people. And His people remember Him.
Painting of Hasidic Jews performing tashlikh (ritual washing away of sins) on Rosh Hashanah, placed on the banks of the Vistula River in Warsaw.

Painting of Hasidic Jews performing tashlikh (ritual washing away of sins) on Rosh Hashanah, placed on the banks of the Vistula River in Warsaw.

 

The number seven is symbolic of completion, and on the seventh day, God rested from his labors on the Sabbath Day. And the first day of the seventh month marks the Feast of the Trumpets, the day of remembrance.

Next: In ten days following the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur begins. You can read my thoughts here.

Activities you can do with your kids for the Feast of Trumpets:

make the gold plates