Kaparot

Yom Kippur

Preparing for Yom Kippur

What to do in the days and hours before the Day of Atonement.

An ultra-Orthodox Jew swings a chicken over the head of a member of their family as they perform the Kapparot ceremony in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem, on September 14, 2021. - Kapparot is a custom practised by some Jews, in which the sins of a person are symbolically transferred to a fowl, and is performed before Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the most important day in the Jewish calendar, which will start this year at sunset on September 15. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Yom Kippur

Kapparot, Swinging a Chicken Over One’s Head

A Yom Kippur folk custom.