Rosh Hashanah 5777 is the Jewish New Year and literally means “head of the year.” The 5777 is the year count on the lunar Jewish calendar.
Jews don’t say Happy New Year, they hope for a good year.
According to aish.com:
To hope for a happy new year is to give primacy to the ideal of a hedonistic culture whose greatest goal is “to have a good time.” To seek a good year however is to recognize the superiority of meaning over the joy of the moment.
The word “good” has special meaning in the Torah. The first time we find it used is in the series of sentences where God, after each day of creation, views his handiwork and proclaims it “good”. More, when God completed his work he saw all that he had done “and behold it was very good.”
That is the deepest meaning of the word good when it is applied to us and to our lives. We are good when we achieve our purpose; our lives are good when they fulfill what they are meant to be.
We know many people of whom it can be said that they had good lives in spite of their having had to endure great unhappiness. Indeed, the truly great chose lives of sacrifice over pleasure and left a legacy of inspiration and achievement that they never could have accomplished had they been solely concerned with personal gratification.
Today and tomorrow, the shofar will sound in Israel as it has for thousands of years to announce the King and to begin the ten days of repentance culminating in Yom Kippur.
May this Rosh Hashanah 5777 bring your family a good year with sweetness!