Background to the Christian Festivals

Emerging from its Judaic background, the Christian church did not continue the observance of the festivals of Israelite worship but developed a liturgical calendar of its own, based principally on major events in the life of Christ. The Pentateuch mandates the observance of three annual feasts (Exod. 23:14-27; Lev. 23; Deut. 16:17): Passover, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, and the Feast of Ingathering, also called the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus and the earliest Christians were familiar with this Mosaic calendar, and the New Testament records occasions when they took part in these festivals. Jesus cleansed the temple during a Passover observance (John 2:13-17), taught in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:14-39), and instituted the Lord's Supper during the Passover (Matt. 26:17-30). It was on the day of Pentecost that the apostles, together in Jerusalem, were filled with the Holy Spirit and first preached Jesus as the Christ (Acts 2:1). Paul, on what was to be his f…