For many Jews worldwide, the high holiday of Yom Kippur — known as one of the Jewish high holy days, or specifically the day of atonement — is considered one of the most important of the year. In the days leading up to and during Yom Kippur, Jews engage in a number of activities to repent for personal and collective sins, as well as to apologize to friends, loved ones, and those within their community. One of the most well-known ways is fasting; Jews begin fasting at sundown the evening of Yom Kippur and do so until sunset the next day, when they break the fast with a festive meal .
Observant Jews of all denominations spend the day in synagogue, engaged in prayer and the airing of their confessions. Many Jews also wear white as a symbol of purity. And, in some limited circles, they perform an ancient ritual known as kapparot, which involves swinging a chicken or rooster overhead three times before its slaughter.
This hotly debated practice, which is performed on either the day before (or the afternoon before) Yom Kippur, is intended to pass the sins of the individual performing the rite to the chicken. It is not known exactly when kapparot was first performed; the ritual is not part of widespread Jewish practice, and by and large does not appear in biblical texts (like the Torah) or post-biblical texts (like the Talmud). The first written mention of the practice of kapparot dates back to the ninth century; since is inception, per MyJewishLearning , scholars have derided i.