Anyada Buena, Shanah Tovah by Sarah Aroeste with illustrations by Maria Mola; Minneapolis, Minnesota: Kar-Ben Publishing; (c) 2025; ISBN 9798765-619636; 12 pages; $9.99.
SAN DIEGO — For those who grew up in the Sephardic tradition, this board book intended for children aged 4 and under may be a simple primer about Rosh Hashanah. But for those Jews who grew up in the Ashkenazic culture, it is an introduction to the way Sephardic Jews celebrate a familiar holiday.
The words Anyada Buena are the Ladino equivalent of the Hebrew expression Shanah Tovah, or the English hope for a “Good Year!” Challah is spelled halá, and like their Ashkenazi cousins, the Sephardim like round halá to eat on the New Year’s holiday, which they spell Rosh Ashana.
Sephardim have the custom of a Rosh Ashana seder, with eight symbolic foods that the book pictures but does not name. However, another source lists the foods as apples, dates, leeks, spinach, squash, black-eyed peas, a fish head, and honey (or sugar), into which bread is dipped.
The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington reports these foods have symbolic significance. For example, the Aramaic word for “date” sounds like that language’s word for “end.” Dates, therefore, are said to symbolize an “end” to enmity against the Jews, or peace among the religions. The fish head symbolizes the wish that celebrants be placed at the head, or the top, not at the bottom.
Eight years ago, author Sarah Aroeste recorded the song Anyada Buena. Her children’s book provides a link to the older video, which expands on the customs of the Sephardic Rosh Ashana while providing a lovely melody. The video above contains the following refrain:
Anyada buena
Dulse i alegre
Seyas bendicho
Seyas kontente
which roughly translates as:
A good year
Sweet and joyful
May you be blessed,
May you be happy.
For the translation of the full song, click here.
The biography of American-born Sarah Aroeste on her website says, in part, “Aroeste has been a vocal advocate for exposing new audiences to Sephardic culture and has worked tirelessly to keep Ladino alive for a new generation. Aroeste is one of few Ladino composers today who writes her own music, and whether with her original compositions or with interpreting Ladino folk repertoire, she has developed a signature style combining traditional Mediterranean Sephardic sounds with contemporary influences such as rock, pop and jazz.”
Aroeste’s family’s Sephardic roots are in North Macedonia and Greece.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.