Yizkor is recited on four occasions across the Jewish year: Yom Kippur, the last day of Passover, Shavuot and Shemini Atzeret. Of the four, the Yom Kippur recitation is by far the most widely observed, drawing synagogue attendance even from Jews who are not otherwise regular worshippers, since Yom Kippur itself is the day on which Jewish tradition asks the living to reckon most directly with mortality.
A long-standing custom, still followed in many Orthodox and traditional congregations, has those whose parents are both living step out of the sanctuary during the recitation, returning once it ends. The custom is not a legal requirement in the way the prayer itself is a communal one, and practice on it varies: some communities have largely dropped it, some retain it as a folk custom rather than a rule, and Reform and Reconstructionist congregations in particular have moved toward recitation by the whole congregation together regardless of family circumstance, treating memory as a shared act rather than a private exemption.
Alongside reciting the names, the service is customarily paired with a pledge of tzedakah, charitable giving in memory of the dead, reflecting a wider pattern in Jewish mourning practice where charitable acts are offered as merit on behalf of someone who has died. Memorial candles, yahrzeit candles that burn for twenty four hours, are commonly lit at home on the evening before a Yizkor day, extending the observance beyond the synagogue building itself.
The prayer is structured around a list the worshipper supplies, so its printed form works less as fixed text and more as a template: the wording stays constant, but the names inserted change year to year, tying communal liturgy to individual family memory.