Shavuot
Shavuot
Festival of Weeks
6-7 Sivan (May / Jun)
Shavuot recalls G-d’s gifts of the Torah and the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Holy Day commemorates the end of the spring harvest when, in biblical times, Jews brought the first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Shavuot begins on the fiftieth day after Pesach, the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (in May or June), and lasts for two days. Consuming dairy foods and using floral decorations are customary ways of celebrating the holiday. Work is not permitted during this two-day festival.
The days between Pesach and Shavuot are seen as days of mourning and are held as a remembrance of the misfortunes that afflicted the Jewish people during the days of Roman domination, as well as during the Crusades of the Middle Ages.