Page 111 - Biblical Backgrounds student textbook

extended family and telling the exodus story, known as the “Haggada”. Other common names: festival
of Matza, festival of spring. It lasts seven days, however, students are off school for up to 18 days and
many Jewish people are on vacation from work as well, thus this a common time of traveling around the
country or abroad.

Symbolic food: regular flour food is not allowed (nor is it sold in public), the Matza (flat unleavened
bread) is the traditional food that symbolizes Passover more than anything else.

Date: around April.
Season: early spring.
The basis for this holiday is found in the Bible.

Exodus 12:12 On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both
people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.

Exodus 13:7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you,
and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.

Pentecost
Pentecost (Hebrew: Shavuot) commemorates the time when God gave the Torah to the Children of
Israel in the Sinai desert. Shavuot eve is celebrated with the family, usually having a dairy dinner with
many cheese-related food including cheesecakes. This one-day holiday is also called the Festival of
Weeks or the Festival of Reaping.

Dates: early June, exactly seven weeks (49 days) after the start of Passover.
Season: late spring.

Tisha Be’av
Tisha Be’av is a fast that commemorates the destruction of both the First and second Temples in
Jerusalem. It is held for one day only.

Date: mid-July to early August.

New Year
This is the Jewish New Year (Hebrew: Rosh Hashanah which literally means “the head of the year”).
New Year eve (Hebrew: Erev Rosh Hashanah) is traditionally celebrated with a grand dinner, usually with
the extended family. To symbolize a sweet New Year, apples and honey are eaten on New Year’s Eve.
Pomegranates that have many seeds are eaten or used in cocking during this holiday. The common
greeting is “Shana Tova” which literally means in Hebrew “good year”. The New Year lasts for two days.

Dates: anywhere between September 5th and October 5th, the exact Gregorian date changes every year
like the rest of the Jewish holidays.

Day of Atonement
The Day of Atonement (Hebrew: yom kippur or yom hakkipurim) is the holiest day of them all, where a
lot of prayer services are held, and the religious ones fast for 25 hours. This one day also intermingles
with an unofficial Memorial Day to the war that broke on Yom Kippur in October 1973. A common

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