Festivals
The Jewish ritual year — Passover through Hanukkah.
7 entries
- customsPassover
The spring festival commemorating Israel's deliverance from Egypt. A lamb is slain at twilight and eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened br…
- customsFeast of Unleavened Bread
The seven-day festival joined to Passover. From 15 to 21 Nisan no leaven may be found in any Israelite home — a memorial to the haste of the…
- customsFeast of Firstfruits
On the day after the Sabbath of Passover week, the priest waves a sheaf of the first cut barley before the Lord. The first of the harvest be…
- customsPentecost (Shavuot)
The Feast of Weeks, fifty days after Firstfruits. Israel brings two loaves of leavened wheat bread as the firstfruits of the wheat harvest —…
- customsDay of Atonement
Yom Kippur — the most solemn day of the year. The high priest enters the Most Holy Place to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, and a second g…
- customsTabernacles (Sukkot)
The seven-day autumn harvest festival. Israel leaves the house for a week of living in a sukkah — a temporary booth roofed with branches — r…
- customsHanukkah (Feast of Dedication)
The eight-day winter festival that remembers the rededication of the Temple in 164 BC, after Judah Maccabee cleansed it from pagan defilemen…