As part of the Jewish community, Jesus celebrated the traditional feasts and festivals. He did not celebrate the pagan festivals, though they went on in the community around Him. Three of these Jewish festivals were “Pilgrimage Festivals” meaning God’s people were expected to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate them. These were Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths). As commanded by the Torah, they would journey to the temple in Jerusalem to participate in festivities and ritual worship. It was one of these Pilgrimage festivals, Passover, recorded of Jesus as a boy left behind by his parents. This festival also became known to Christians as ‘The Last Supper’, when celebrated by Jesus and His disciples. These 3 festivals are key to our Christian faith: 

1. Passover foreshadowed Jesus’ sacrifice atoning for sin, as the blood of a lamb allowed death to ‘pass over’ in the book of Exodus, freeing the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. 

2. Weeks or Pentecost traditionally celebrates the Torah given by God at Mt. Sinai, foreshadowed the coming of His Holy Spirit to Christian believers. 

3. Tabernacles commemorates the Exodus and the dependence His people had on a His presence, just as for Christians our participation in the presence and fullness of God. 

These festivals each denote a part of the Trinity: 

Tabernacles-the Father

Passover-the Son

Pentecost-the Holy Spirit

How fitting is it for us to celebrate these festivals, as Jesus Himself did, not only in the tradition of Judaism, but also in the foreshadowing of what it means to us as Christians!

​

Jesus & Disciples DID celebrate/participate:

Rosh Hashanah-Feast of Trumpets: Jewish New Year, when Jews believe God decides what will happen in the year ahead. Synagogue services for this festival emphasize God's kingship and include blowing of the shofar, a ram's horn trumpet. This is God's judgement of good and bad deeds over the past year.

Yom Kippur-Feast of Atonement: The most solemn day of the Jewish year, Day of Atonement is devoted to self–examination. Many spend it in prayer and study while abstaining from food and drink. The goal is to begin the New Year with a clean slate.

Sukkot-Feast of Tabernacles/Booths/Tents: This seven–day festival celebrates the fall harvest and also commemorates the time when the Hebrews dwelt in the Sinai wilderness on their way to the Promised Land of Israel. The holiday is celebrated by building (and then dwelling in) ceremonial huts called Sukkot, waving of four different plant species (palm, myrtle, willow and citron), and many food-filled festive gatherings in the Sukkah.

Shemini Atzeret This holiday literally means the “8th day of assembly.” It is a festive day after the week-long festival of Sukkot, marked by annual prayer for rain recited in synagogue. 

Simchat Torah- marks the end and beginning of the annual Torah reading cycle. Every week all over the world, the same Torah portion is read in Jewish communities. On Simchat Torah the cycle ends and begins again. This is accompanied by parading the Torah scrolls about and with singing and dancing.

Hanukkah-Festival of Lights: This 8–day Jewish winter festival celebrates the miracle of a small cruse of oil when it burned for 8 days, instead of only one. It also celebrates the military victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the powerful Syrian Greek army in 167 BCE. The victory was followed by a rededication (Hanukkah) of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. 

Tu B’Shevat- This is the Jewish New Year of the Trees. Observances include planting of trees, purchasing trees to be planted in Israel, and a mystical Tu B'Shevat ritual meal that includes different colored wine (from white to red) and different kinds of fruits and nuts.

Purim The name of this holiday means “lots”, so named for the lots that were drawn to determine a dark day in Jewish history. Those dark days never arrived, as the evil villain's plans were thwarted by the clever Jewish Queen Esther, whose story is recounted in the Biblical Scroll of Esther. Celebrations include a public reading of the scroll, giving gifts to friends and to the needy, dressing up in costume, and eating a special triangle-shaped pastry, the hamantaschen.

Passover-This seven or eight day festival of freedom marks the Hebrew exodus from Egypt. The story of the Angel of the Lord ‘passing over’ the households of God’s people, marked by Lamb’s blood as directed by God Himself, who played out Pharoah’s curse of death to Egypt’s first-born. The story is re-told during a festive ritual meal called a “Seder.” During the festival, it is tradition to abstain from all foods containing leaven, to symbolize the bread the Hebrews ate during their hurried exodus from Egypt when their bread did not have time to rise. The Passover Festival was the celebration of The Lord’s Supper by Jesus and His Disciples.

Purim- is a joyous Jewish holiday that commemorates the survival of the Jewish people in ancient Persia who were saved from an annihilation plot by Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai.

​

Jesus & Disciples did NOT celebrate/participate:

Easter- Originated during the times of the Tower of Babel with Queen Easter/Ishtar the Mother Goddess and wife of Nimrod. As the people scattered from Babel with their different languages, they, of course, used different names for the Mother Goddess “ISHTAR” (originally pronounced “Easter”), such as Eostre, Astarte, Ostera, and Eastre. Queen Easter, the Mother goddess was frequently worshipped as the goddess of fertility—and as a stype of Mother Nature and goddess of Spring and sexual love and birth. She was also worshipped as a mediator between god and man. Sexual orgies and temple prostitutes were often used in her worship and in attempting to gain her favor. The Easter Rabbit and Easter Egg are both symbols of fertility. (It is pertinent to mention, however, that there is an Egg on the Passover plate that symbolizes new life, not fertility. The Jewish Passover Festival was celebrated around the time of the pagan Easter Festival.)

Winter Solstice The shortest day of the year, in December on the modern calendar, is called the Winter Solstice. Pagans celebrate it as the 'end of darkness’, when the light comes into the world. Sol Invictus ("The Unconquered Sun") was originally a Syrian god who was later adopted as the chief god of the Roman Empire under Emperor Aurelian. Modern participants celebrate it as a time when the divine cosmic energy may elevate consciousness and health. Modern day Christians celebrate the birth of Christ around this time, it is His conception date, not His actual birthdate, as the day the True LIGHT, Christ, came into the world. 

Holy Samhain- (Holy Evil) Hallow – to make Holy (Hallowed) "Halloween"

Ween - short for Samhain (sah-ween) A Celtic Feast on a night pagans celebrate the removal of separation between the underworld-hell, and the middle world-earth. Demons were called on and released to oppress the living on their “Day of the Dead”. Trick or Treat is symbolic of Druids who went door to door requesting a sacrifice, usually a small child or virgin. This was the Druid’s “treat”. Those who did not meet demands would receive a ‘hex’ or ‘curse’ which consisted of a pentagram drawn on the door with blood, making it for demons to find and kill someone in that home. (Compare to Passover and Old Testament sacrifice.) In exchange for a sacrifice, Druids would leave a human skull with a candle made of human fat to prevent those inside from being killed by demons. It also served as a warning to all who did not comply.

Later tradition softens the skull to a carved turnip or pumpkin, and called a ‘jack o’ lantern.

After druids obtained their sacrifices, they would throw them in a huge fire which left only bones-hence, Bone fires, tradition softened the name to Bonfires. Costumes originally were used during the Feast of Samhain on October 31st to confuse demons by dressing like them.