Added: 11/09/2007 |
One Of The Three Festivals Of Jews, The Shavuot DayAn occasion celebrated by Jewish is called Shavuot or Pentecost. The Shavuot day is basically about celebration of Torah, a Holy Book given by God to the Jews for guidance. It means “Feast of Weeks” that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month called Sivan which according to solar calendar occurs in late May and early June. This Jewish holiday is celebrated by Jews religiously celebrating the Holy Book they have from God and feasting.
On the Shavuot day all the streets are empty, shops are closed but the synagogues are full as all the Jews come to say their prayers. The major reason of celebrating this Shavuot day is that all the Jews around the world celebrate this day by celebrating the physical freedom of the Israel’s from oppression of Egypt and Torah, the Holy book which was given to them by God at Mount Sinai almost 3,000 years ago where God gave convention with his people and gave them ten commandments according to which they were suppose to lead their lives.
Unlike all the other Holidays in the Tanach, the Shavuot day is not given a fixed calendar date but instead the Jews are meant to celebrate that on the 50th day of “the Counting of the Omer”. The counting reminds Jews of the important link between Passover and Shavuot: Passover reminds them of the freedom from the bondage of Egypt and the Shavuot day reminds them of the spiritual freedom when God handed over Torah to the Jewish people with 10 commandments to follow and apply in their lives.
The Jewish people have a holiday on the Shavuot day as each individual is customary to stay up for the first night of Shavuot day to study Torah. The book of Ruth is read at this time also. Then wake up early in the morning the next day to say their prayers, to get close to God and gain spiritual peace. It is customary to eat a dairy meal at least once during Shavuot day. Different people have different opinion about why this is practiced. Some people agree to the assumption that it is because of our ancestors as they did not have both diary and meat to eat. Others give the reason about the promise they were made about having their own “Land of Israel” with “honey and diary”.
This was one of the seven high days, which were to be treated like Sabbaths. Therefore two additional lambs were to be sacrificed as burnt offering after the morning service. The offerings on the Shavuot day consist of:
•Sin offering: a male goat
•Burnt offering: 7 one-year-old male lambs, 2 bulls*, and 1 ram*, with their grain offering and their drink offerings
•Wave offering: Two loaves of leavened bread made from fine flour from the wheat
•Peace offering: 2 one-year-old male lambs
(Leviticus 23:18 recorded 1 bull and 2 rams but Numbers 28:27 recorded 2 bulls and 1 ram). Celebrating the Shavuot day is a religious ceremony that is practiced by every Jew every where in the world to help them remind of their aims and basic goals in life and to give them spiritual and physical strength.
Shavuot will be celebrated on the subsequent days of the Gregorian calendar:
•Jewish Year 5768: sunset June 8, 2008 - nightfall June 10, 2008
•Jewish Year 5769: sunset May 28, 2009 - nightfall May 30, 2009
•Jewish Year 5770: sunset May 18, 2010 - nightfall May 20, 2010
•Jewish Year 5771: sunset June 7, 2011 - nightfall June 9, 2011
•Jewish Year 5772: sunset May 26, 2012 - nightfall May 28, 2012
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