Avoiding Nuts on Rosh Hashanah

On the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, some people avoid eating nuts. The reason is a piece of wordplay: in gematria (the practice of reading Hebrew words as numbers), the Hebrew word for nut, egoz, has the same numerical value as the word for sin, chet — and the day is about turning away from sin. This custom is cited by the Rema, a leading authority on Ashkenazi practice.