Calendar Entry #13: Shavuot

We continue our journey through the Cauldrons Calendar feast/festival/holidays.

Encampment of Israelites, Mount Sinai
- Joseph Mallord William Turner

 Shavuot, or Shavu'oth in Classical Hebrew is a holiday that falls on the sixth (and seventh) day of Sivan in the Jewish calendar.  It is also known as the Festival of Weeks and is the second of three big festivals, which include Passover and Sukkot.

From an agricultural standpoint it celebrates the harvest of the first fruits and their being brought to the Temple.  Historically it commemorates the day God gave the Torah to the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai.  It is the giving of the Torah rather than the receiving that is celebrated, because the sages say that Jews are in a constant state of receiving the Torah; they receive it everyday.   This day celebrates the day they were first given the Torah. 

By Jewish law, Shavuot is to be celebrated in Israel for one day and in the Diaspora (anywhere outside of Israel) for two days.  This is why it appears on the two days in our Cauldrons Calendar.  (However, in accordance with Jewish practice, this started at sunset on the previous day - Tuesday 7th).

Shavuot at Kibbutz Gan-Shmuel - Amos Gil, PikiWiki

Shavuot is a movable celebration, in that it comes directly after Passover.  The link between Passover and Shavuot are such that Passover symbolises the freedom from physical bondage while Shavuot, with the giving of the Torah, celebrates the redemption from the spiritual bondage of idolatry and immorality. 

There is no work permitted on Shavuot and while it's not a public holiday outside of Israel, many Jews in the Diaspora may take their annual leave at this time. 

It is customary to: 

• stay up the entire first night of Shavuot and study Torah, then pray as early as possible in the morning.
• to eat a dairy meal at least once during Shavuot.  Some say it is a reminder of the promise regarding the land of Israel, a land flowing with "milk and honey." Others believe it is because when the Jews had just received the Torah (and the dietary laws contained), they were unable to use their dishes until they were made kosher through the kashering process, they had to make do with a dairy meal.
• read the Book of Ruth.  There is no definitive reason given for this, although one suggestion is that Ruth's conversion occurred during the harvest season.

Calendar Entry #9: Lag B'Omer

We continue our journey through the Cauldrons Calendar feast/festival/holidays

 

The grave of Rabbi Simeon Bar Yochai in
Meron on Lag B'Omer - Jonathan Stein

Lag BaOmer is a Jewish holiday celebrated on the thirty-third day of the Counting of the Omer.  According to the Torah (Lev. 23:15) Jews must count the days from Passover to Shavu'ot.  This period is known as the Counting of the Omer. 

 

There are two reasons to celebrate this day. 

1.  Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai lived in the second century of the common era and was the first to publicly teach the mystical dimension of the Torah known as the Kabbalah.  He was also the author of the Zohar. On the day of his passing, Rabbi Shimon instructed his disciples to mark the date as “the day of my joy."  It is a commemoration of the mystical teachings he left behind. 

2.  The Talmud states that in the weeks between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavu'ot, a plague killed thousands (some sources state 24,000) of students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva.  This was because "they did not act respectfully towards each other.”  On Lag BaOmer it is said that the deaths ceased and the plague was over.  Rabbi Akiva only took five students after this, one of them being Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

Lag B'Omer is therefore a celebration of the teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and a day to remember to love and respect each other. 

Celebrations include outings, bonfires, parades as well as the first haircuts for children.  The burial place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, in Meron, is the venue for an annual event, where hundreds of thousands of Jews gather to celebrate with bonfires, torches, singing and feasting.

Calendar Entry #3: Yom Ha'atzmaut & Thargelia

We continue our journey through the Cauldrons Calendar feast/festival/holidays.  

 

Yom Ha'atzmaut 

Yom Ha'atzmaut is Israel's Independence Day and it celebrates the declaration of the state of Israel by The Jewish Leadership led by the then future Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, on 14 May 1948.   It occurs annually on or around the 5th of Iyar.  Iyar is the 8th month of the civil year and the 2nd month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.   

Due to the custom of beginning celebrations at sundown on the previous day, it was decided in 2004 that if the 5th of Iyar is a Monday, then the holiday will move to the Tuesday.  Therefore, while Yom Ha'atzmaut should be set for Monday, it is actually observed and celebrated on Tuesday 10 May this year.

Thargelia

Thargelia is an Athenian festival to celebrate the birthdays of Artemis and Apollo, held on the 6th and 7th of Thargelion.  Now unfortunately my research has shown that the actual timing of this would put the dates later in May, around the 20th and 21st or the 24th and 25th depending on where you look.

The festival is mainly for Apollo, and is basically an agricultural festival where first fruits were offered to Apollo, but it was also a time when the city of Athens, or rather its inhabitants, underwent a cathartic rite of purification.

On the first day of the festival two men (there are some references that state a man and a woman) were chosen to represent the men and women of Athens.  They were usually criminals or outcasts or deemed the ugliest.  They took on the role of the pharmakos (scapegoat) and after being fed, dressed/decorated in figs and led through the city (there are some reports that say they were beaten with green sticks during this procession) they were then cast out or exiled.   It is said that during times of great strife (such as a plague or famine), the pharmakos were actually put to death.  Accounts vary, but they were either burnt on a funeral pyre with their ashes scattered at sea, stoned to death or thrown into the sea alive.  The sacrifice of the pharmakos (either in being expelled from the city or in death) was meant to purify the residents of Athens of their communal guilt.

The second day of the festival was a much more celebratory affair.  There were offerings of thanks to Apollo, a procession, and an agon or competition of sorts, where the winner was awarded a tripod that he had to dedicate in the temple of Apollo.  This was also the day that families would undertake the solemn registration of adopted children, where the children were officially given the genos and phratria of their adoptive parents.  From what I've read, although not extensively, it looks to be sort of like hapu and iwi, or clan and tribe of the family.  I'm not 100% on that so if you've studied Classics and can clarify the terms, then please do.  :)

Calendar Entry #1: Yom HaSho'ah

I had meant to do this on each day to correspond with the Calendar.  I totally forgot until just now, realising that I had missed a day.  So here's the entry that was supposed to be for  Sunday May 1st.

Yom HaSho'ah

This day is otherwise known in English as Holocaust Day or Holocaust Remembrance Day.  It is observed as Israel's commemoration for the millions of Jews who passed during the Holocaust and has been a national and public holiday since it's inception in 1953.

At 10am a siren sounds for two minutes at which time people stop what they are doing, stand at attention to pay silent tribute for those who died.