Jewish Ceremony Havdalah

Havdalah is a Jewish ceremony. It is performed at the end of the Shabbat that separating the holy Sabbath day from the following worldly week. "Havdalah" means "differentiation" or "distinction", it is also the name assigned to the special prayer recited for the ceremony.

This ceremony in Judaism, is performed when the Sabbath ends and the new week begins at nightfall on Saturday. The special prayer is recited as soon as three stars become visible in the night sky. Sometimes the ceremony is deliberately delayed to prolong the Sabbath. This is to prolong the holy Shabbat period for any genuine reason if the Havdalah ceremony cannot be performed on Saturday night, it is observed late Tuesday evening.
The ceremony has five elements. These are prayer, distribution of wine, lighting a candle, handing over spices and final prayer. Each of these is briefly explained below:
A prayer is chanted for heralding the new week. This is followed by distributing wine or grape juice drunk as a toast in honor of the new week and the passing Sabbath. Lighting a candle follows. This is a braided multi wick candle specially made for the ceremony. After the candle is lit prayer is chanted..

Spices are passed on to those present enabling every one to smell the fragrance. Another community called Sephardi observes a different practice. Members of this community use small bunch of aromatic plants for this purpose. Often the spices are placed in a well decorated special container called the Havdalah spice container. Rituals are observed with slight variation by different communities. But they include prayers in Yiddish.
The following is an account of usual customs. The candle is lit and the wine cup is filled. At that time an introductory prayer based on the psalms is recited, followed by the blessing on the wine. The spices are distributed and smelled, with chanting of prayer on the spices. Those assembled worship the candles chanting the prayer over the lit candles. The special Havdalah prayer is chanted. The English translation of the prayer is given below:

"Blessed art thou O Lord, our God King of the universe, who distinguishes sacred from profane, light from darkness, Israel from the nations, the seventh day from the six working days. Blessed art thou o Lord, our God King of the universe, who distinguishes sacred from profane."

After the Havdalah prayer the ` ceremony concludes with the participants drinking major share of the wine They extinguish the candle by holding it above a plate and pouring the wine over it. Some members in addition also dip their fingers in the wine. At this point everyone says "Shavua Tov" '" which means "have a good week". Some persons also recite an anthology of blessings. A special feast, singing and dancing may follow the ceremony on most occasions.