Festal Worship In Solomon's Temple

Three national festivals were celebrated yearly in the temple: Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. Three times a year all adult men went to the temple to celebrate the national festivals (Exod. 23:17; Deut. 16:16): Passover (in April), the Feast of Weeks (in May), and the Feast of Booths (in October). When possible the whole family accompanied the men. But if they lived a long way from Jerusalem, they would only go up for one of the festivals (1 Sam. 1:3; Luke 2:41). These festivals were tremendous occasions. Hundreds of thousands of people converged on Jerusalem. They would stay with relatives or camp in tents outside the city. The temple courts would be thronged with worshipers. The temple choirs sang psalms appropriate for the festival, while the priests and Levites offered hundreds, and at Passover thousands, of animals in sacrifice. The festivals were marked by colorful processions led by leaders of the tribes, accompanied by festive dance and the beat of ta…