The Jewish version of the game begins as the summer nears its end. You will be asked to go over your files and make room for new ones. Travel light - shed the unnecessary. Next I go through my house, room by room, every object, every piece of information. The name of the game is Change.
Little changes are indications of big changes, and every little change counts.
We get to shed parts of our old self so that we can become something new. All thugh we can, and do, shed and return to our essential self every day of the year - doing it together with other friends and fellow shedders helps a lot. I suspect it developed over the centuries in a big snowball effect. Every generation added a little more. The way of we are celebrating the High Holy Days today barely resembles the way our ancestors celebrated it 1000 or 2000 years ago.