The break is deliberate: it separates the shofar of Elul, which is a custom, from the shofar of Rosh Hashanah, which is a Torah obligation.

Also today: no Tachanun. Many go to the mikveh. Many visit graves of the righteous. Many fast until midday.

A vow can be created by something as small as saying you will always do a thing. This clears the year's accumulated ones before the Day of Judgment.

Chabad custom: omit any mention of dreams, which some other versions include. Full text is in Tehillat Hashem around page 358 - long, and best read from the siddur with the panel in front of you.

Say it in a language you understand. The widespread custom is that women do not do this; a woman may appoint her husband to include her.

On Yom Tov you may transfer fire but not create it. Leave a candle burning from before the holiday for this.

Both nights: the candle blessing, then Shehecheyanu. If the first night is Shabbat, the blessing becomes ner shel Shabbat v'shel yom hazikaron.

The simanim come after hamotzi in the Sephardic and Chabad practice. Doing them after the bread means the meal has begun, so most foods on the table would already be covered - which is why the blessings below are handled carefully.

Both nights. The full seder is done on the first and second nights alike.

Talmud Horayot 12a and Keritot 6a are the source: Abaye said a person should make a point of seeing gourd, fenugreek, leeks, chard and dates at the start of the year. The Yehi Ratzon texts were added later, built on wordplay.

The bite comes before the Yehi Ratzon so that nothing interrupts between the blessing and eating. This ordering is the standard Sephardic practice and is easy to get backwards.

Blessings: say borei p’ri ha’etz on the date - the first siman - having in mind the pomegranate and apple that follow, so they need no blessing of their own.

For the vegetables, the cleanest practice is to say borei p’ri ha’adama on a fruit that would not normally be part of a meal, such as melon, and have the vegetable simanim in mind. Otherwise hamotzi has already covered them and no blessing is said.

If the date is a fruit you have not eaten this season, add Shehecheyanu on it.

If greens cannot be checked properly for insects, say the Yehi Ratzon without eating them.

Tamar, date. Yitamu, may they end.

The pomegranate is said to have 613 seeds. The number is folklore rather than botany, but the image is the point.

Some Sephardic authorities prefer sugar to honey here; the Rama records honey. Either is fine. Many use apple cooked in sugar rather than raw.

Rubia or lubia in Aramaic, from the root meaning to increase. Some communities use fenugreek instead.

Karti, leek. Yikartu, may they be cut off. Persian and Iraqi tables often use chives or spring onion for this.

Silka, chard. Yistalku, may they depart. Check the leaves for insects; if you cannot check them properly, say the Yehi Ratzon without eating.

K’ra, gourd. Two puns at once: kera, to tear up, and kara, to call out or read.

Some use the head of any fish; a lamb head also recalls the ram of the Akedah, which is read on Rosh Hashanah.

Two additions on the second night. Put a new fruit - something you have not eaten this season - on the table before Kiddush, and have it in mind during Shehecheyanu. Some eat it straight after Kiddush.

Candles on the second night are lit after nightfall, from an existing flame. Never strike a match on Yom Tov.

If the date you are using is itself a new fruit for you, Shehecheyanu can be said on it.

Zochreinu in the first blessing. Mi chamocha av harachaman in the second. HaMelech HaKadosh replaces ha'el hakadosh in the third - get that one wrong and you repeat the whole Amidah. HaMelech HaMishpat in the eleventh. B'sefer chayim at the end.

On Rosh Hashanah itself the middle blessings are replaced entirely, as on Shabbat, and Musaf has three extra sections instead of one.

Avinu Malkeinu after the Amidah at Shacharit and Mincha, but not on Shabbat.

Kingship, remembrance, and the shofar - each with ten verses from Torah, Prophets and Writings, each followed by shofar blasts.

If you cannot get to shul for Musaf, it may be said alone at any point in the day. Follow it in the machzor.

A hundred blasts are blown each morning. You only need thirty for the obligation; the rest is custom. If you arrive late or must leave, thirty consecutive blasts covers you.

Not blown on Shabbat. If the first day is Shabbat, shofar is heard only on the second day.

The blower says the blessings; you answer Amen and have in mind that you are fulfilling the mitzvah through him.

They come in fixed groups, each opened and closed by a tekiah. The final blast is a tekiah gedolah, held as long as the blower can. A caller announces each one before it is blown, so you do not need to track the count.

The new fruit is something you have not eaten this season, giving the Shehecheyanu something concrete to attach to, since the second day's status is debated. Put it out before Kiddush.

The apple needs borei p'ri ha'etz because hamotzi does not cover it. Chabad and Rav Ovadia both place the simanim after hamotzi; some Moroccan communities do them before.

Chabad custom: no nuts for the whole of the Ten Days.

Persian, Iraqi and Syrian households traditionally run a full seder of simanim, each with its own yehi ratzon: leek or chives, beets, dates, gourd, pomegranate, black-eyed peas, and a fish or lamb head.

Each is a pun in Hebrew or Aramaic on what is being asked for. The Talmud's own list is closer to the Persian table than to the Ashkenazi one.

This is family minhag, like your Selichot. Ask an older relative what your house does - before this year's table, while there is someone to ask.

Not at a mikveh. A river, lake or sea. If you miss it you may say it any time until Hoshana Rabbah.

The minimum is the first paragraph, below. Chabad custom is to empty the pockets afterward.

Use the machzor for those. Everything on this page is complete as far as it goes, and covers what you need to know rather than read.