Deuteronomy 16:16 –
Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the LORD without a gift for him.
Moses gave very specific instructions on what “holidays” one must take throughout the year to celebrate God and rest. This chapter explains the reasoning and the protocol for each of the festivals. Interestingly the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover) and the Festival of Shelters are both defined as a week-long celebration. The Festival of Harvest is 7 weeks from the start of harvest. Notice how 7 ties into this very closely. As side note there are many who really take the numbers in the Bible serious, and think there is some great code to them. I honestly think it’s just for simplicity and nothing more.
We continue to do this today as Christians, but not for the same reasons. I believe God gave the Israelites these “Festivals” so they could have periods throughout the year for a long rest. As Christians we do not follow the Jewish Festivals for reasons I am not totally sure, but we have made our own holidays. Easter and Christmas are the “big” Christian “Festivals” which celebrate the birth and death of Jesus. Sure “Lent” lasts a few weeks, but really the true “holidays” are single days and rarely dedicated much past a quick church service and “pagan” rituals.
Think about Easter and the Easter Bunny, one could go crazy looking at how some fertility God gets tied into the celebration of the death of our Savior. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, yet the date cannot be accurately predicted so the church in Rome made December 25th as the date based on the theoretical date of conception or Annunciation. Ironically it also falls on the same day as the birth of the pagan god Sol Invictus. Also where did Santa Claus come from? I often wonder if both instance if God is upset at the rituals which correspond to each of these celebrations and how neither honor God. Why don’t we celebrate the “root” celebrations of the Bible?