Feasts & Festivals Schedule
Weekly:
The Lord set aside the seventh day, or Sabbath, of each week as a holy, designated day of rest.
Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday
SHABBAT
We observe Shah-BAHT (Hebrew) or Sabbath (English) means “to cease working, to rest” or “to keep a Shabbat.” The Shabbat is found as early as the Genesis creation account where God Himself is seen as resting and finding refreshment. We secondly find Sabbath-keeping among the socially mandated Ten Commandments given at Sinai.
Fall Feasts and Winter Holidays
There are seven “appointed feasts” mentioned in the Torah.
The first are in the autumn, referred to as the High Holidays, and include the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh HaShana), Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Feast of Booths (Sukkot).
Yom Teruah
The biblical feast of Yom Teruah, or the “Feast of Trumpets runs in conjunction with”Rosh Hashanah, or “Head of the Year”.
10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Yamim Nora’im (Days of Awe)
During the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jews everywhere spend time in serious reflection on how their lives have been spent the past year. This involves going to a brother or sister and asking forgiveness, and, where warranted, being humble enough to make restitution. Sometimes both are required.
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
Yom Kippur is a fasting holiday and considered one of the most holy days of the Jewish calendar. It is a day to “afflict the soul” and to make right the sins of the past year.
5 days after Yom Kippur
Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
Sukkot begins just five days after Yom Kippur. It is a seven-day period when Jewish people recall God’s faithfulness and provision through their forty-year period of wandering in the wilderness.
Simchat Torah (Torah Cycle Begins)
“Rejoicing with/of the Torah,”) is a celebration marking the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle.
Hanukkah – Festival of Lights
Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for “dedication.” The eight-day Jewish celebration bearing that name — it is also called the Festival of Lights — remembers the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem after it had been recovered by the Jewish forces of Yehuda Maccabee in 164 BC.
Spring Feasts and Summer Holidays
The spring begins with Passover (Pesach), including the Feast of Unleavened Bread and First Fruits, and ends with the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot or Pentecost).
Purim
Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar
Pesach – Feast of Unleavened Bread
We observe getting sin out of our lives and we do not eat foods with leavening. Leaven symbolizes sin.
7 weeks from the second night of Pesach to the day before Shavuot
Counting the Omer
“You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf (omer) of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. (Lev. 23:15-16).
Shavuot – Pentecost
Festival of Weeks, commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai