What are the biblical feasts and festivals? (Passover, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, Tabernacles)

Q: What are the biblical feasts and festivals? (Passover, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, Tabernacles)

lists the LORD's appointed times — the yearly cycle of holy days Israel was to keep. Alongside the weekly Sabbath (), there are seven annual feasts, clustered in the spring and the fall: - Passover (Pesach) — the fourteenth day of the first month, remembering the lamb whose blood spared Israel at the exodus (; ). - Unleavened Bread — the seven days after Passover, eating bread without yeast (). - Firstfruits — offering the first sheaf of the harvest to God (). - Weeks / Pentecost (Shavuot) — fifty days after Firstfruits, a harvest thanksgiving (; the Greek name "Pentecost" means fiftieth). - Trumpets (later Rosh Hashanah) — the first day of the seventh month, marked by trumpet blasts (). - The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) — the tenth day of the seventh month, the holiest day: a fast when the high priest made atonement for the nation and the scapegoat carried its sin away (; ; ). - Tabernacles / Booths (Sukkot) — a seven-day fall feast when Israel lived in temporary shelters, remembering the wilderness years (; ; ). Three of them — Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles — were the pilgrimage feasts every man was to keep at the sanctuary ().

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Short answer

Leviticus 23 lists the LORD's appointed times, the yearly cycle of holy days Israel was to keep. Alongside the weekly Sabbath (Leviticus 23:3), there are seven annual feasts, clustered in the spring and the fall:

Passover (Pesach), the fourteenth day of the first month, remembering the lamb whose blood spared Israel at the exodus (Leviticus 23:5; Exodus 12:6).
Unleavened Bread, the seven days after Passover, eating bread without yeast (Leviticus 23:6).
Firstfruits, offering the first sheaf of the harvest to God (Leviticus 23:10).
Weeks / Pentecost (Shavuot), fifty days after Firstfruits, a harvest thanksgiving (Leviticus 23:16; the Greek name "Pentecost" means fiftieth).
Trumpets (later Rosh Hashanah), the first day of the seventh month, marked by trumpet blasts (Leviticus 23:24).
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the tenth day of the seventh month, the holiest day: a fast when the high priest made atonement for the nation and the scapegoat carried its sin away (Leviticus 23:27; Leviticus 16:29; Leviticus 16:34).
Tabernacles / Booths (Sukkot), a seven-day fall feast when Israel lived in temporary shelters, remembering the wilderness years (Leviticus 23:34; Leviticus 23:42; Leviticus 23:43).

Three of them, Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles, were the pilgrimage feasts every man was to keep at the sanctuary (Deuteronomy 16:16).

Question

What are the biblical feasts and festivals? (the appointed times of Leviticus 23, Passover, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, Tabernacles, and more)

Analysis

The spring feasts

Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits fall together in the first month and center on the exodus and the early harvest. Passover looks back to the night the LORD "passed over" Israel's blood-marked homes in Egypt (Exodus 12:13); Unleavened Bread recalls the haste of leaving, with no time for bread to rise (Exodus 12:39); Firstfruits gives God the first of the barley harvest, a pledge that the rest belongs to Him (Leviticus 23:10). Weeks/Pentecost closes the spring cycle fifty days later with the wheat harvest (Leviticus 23:16; Exodus 34:22).

The fall feasts

The seventh month holds three holy days in quick succession: Trumpets opens it with a day of blasts (Leviticus 23:24); ten days later comes the Day of Atonement, the one day the high priest entered the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary and the people, with two goats, one sacrificed, one sent into the wilderness bearing the nation's guilt (Leviticus 16:7; Leviticus 16:10; Leviticus 16:34); and five days after that, Tabernacles, a joyful week in booths that both remembers the wilderness and celebrates the final harvest (Leviticus 23:39; Leviticus 23:43).

A Christian reading (one lens, attributed)

Many Christians have read the feasts as pointing forward to Christ, Paul calls Christ "our Passover lamb" (1 Corinthians 5:7); the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1); and Hebrews reads the Day of Atonement as fulfilled in Christ's once-for-all offering (Hebrews 9:11; Hebrews 9:12). This typological reading is a widely held interpretation, not a claim Leviticus 23 makes of itself, the chapter describes what Israel was to keep and why. Jewish tradition keeps these same appointed times as the enduring festival calendar.

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

Leviticus 23:3bsb
For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a day of sacred assembly. You must not do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:5bsb
The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
Exodus 12:6bsb
You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
Leviticus 23:6bsb
On the fifteenth day of the same month begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Leviticus 23:10bsb
“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.
Leviticus 23:16bsb
You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:24bsb
“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts.
Leviticus 23:27bsb
“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You shall hold a sacred assembly and humble yourselves, and present a food offering to the LORD.
Leviticus 16:29bsb
This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work — whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you —
Leviticus 16:34bsb
This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement once a year for the Israelites because of all their sins.” And all this was done as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Leviticus 23:34bsb
“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days.
Leviticus 23:42bsb
You are to dwell in booths for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must dwell in booths,
Leviticus 23:43bsb
so that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’”
Deuteronomy 16:16bsb
Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
Exodus 12:13bsb
The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:39bsb
Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.

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