Kaparot is an ancient and mystical custom connected to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. It can be performed anytime between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, but most often it is performed just after dawn on the day before Yom Kippur.

An ultra-orthodox women from Mea Shaarim, Jerusalem tries to convince her son to go into a store selling chickens for kaparot.

Photo by David Samson (Reut, Israel)

The original form of the kaparot ceremony involves taking a chicken (a white rooster for a male, hen for a female) and and waving it over one’s head while reciting this prayer: "This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This chicken will go to it's death while I will enter and proceed to a good long life, and peace." Then the chicken is slaughtered and it (or its cash value) is given to the poor.

Today, however, most Jews perform kaparot by waving money wrapped in a white cloth napkin over their head, reciting the prayer and then giving the money to charity following the ceremony.

Kaparot is supposed to imbue people with a feeling that their very lives are at stake as Yom Kippur approaches. The kaparot ceremony is meant to symbolically express our recognition that we have sinned and are no longer deserving of life (like the chicken), but we can be saved from the penalty we deserve if we repent, perform good deeds, and give charity.