Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, has many wonderful foods associated with it. Apples, honey, beef brisket, noodle kugel -- and shining on this list are pomegranates, that one-of-a-kind beautiful, mythical, symbolic and even Biblical fruit.
In the Sephardic tradition, pomegranates are celebrated as part of the Rosh Hashanah meal as a symbol of abundance, knowledge and righteousness. The fruit's numerous seeds led some to say that the seeds corresponded to the 613 commandments of the Torah. (In fact, most pomegranates have somewhere between 400 and 800 seeds, but it's a lovely allegorical notion).
On the table, a pomegranate-shaped dish might hold honey for apples to be dipped in. Yemenite Jews in Israel might have a pile of pomegranates as a centerpiece during the holiday meal.
Pomegranates are used in savory and sweet dishes, and are popular in Israeli and other Middle Eastern cooking, as well as in Mediterranean, Indian and African food. Pomegranate juice is also popular, used in cooking and available bottled for straight-up drinking and use in cocktails and mocktails.