What Is a Biblical
"Holy Day"?
Deuteronomy
16:16-17
Three times a year all your men must appear before the
LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of
Tabernacles. ...
The Hebrew word
translated "feast" in this passage is chag. It means, in
general, a celebration or festival when used in
this kind of context.
The Bible thus
speaks of three times in a year that are particular "festivals"
of this sort. The first is in Spring, with the seven-day Feast
of Unleavened Bread, connected to the Passover. The second is in
early summer, with the one-day Feast of Pentecost. And the third
is in the Autumn, with the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles.
But the English
translations of the Bible also speak of other times with the
word "Feast."
Leviticus 23:2
Speak to the
Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed
feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are
to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
In this passage, the
Hebrew word that is being translated "appointed feasts" is
moedim, and it means "times of appointed assembly." And the
term "sacred assemblies" is from the Hebrew term kodesh,
"holy," and mikra, "gathering."
The Feast of
Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of
Tabernacles are also mentioned in this passage in Leviticus.
They were also moedim, times of appointed assembly. The
term chag is again used to describe them. They were
anciently times of pilgrimage, when every male in the land, if
possible, would come to the central worship sanctuary, bringing
most of his family if he could. They would celebrate each of the
festivals, each chag, as a time period of festivities.
But the term
moedim, along with kodesh mikra, is used in the same
passage to designate several other "special times": the weekly
Sabbath, the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the first day
of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the last biblical special
observance of the year, called by the Jews Shemini Atzeret,
the "Eighth Day (Assembly)," because it falls on the eighth day
from the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Each of these
special days had rituals and commandments associated with its
observance in ancient times. All of them are days on which no
"regular work" is to be done, and all are days which are to
include "sacred assemblies" for the purpose of worship. The Jews
commonly refer to these individual days with the term Yom Tov,
meaning "good (or holy) day." (Yom=day, Tov=good)
To summarize, there are seven
annual "Holy Days" of worship in the sacred calendar
described in the Bible, days that are "holy convocations" (kodesh
mikra):
The First Day of
Unleavened Bread
The Last Day of Unleavened Bread
The Day (Feast) of Pentecost
The Day of Trumpets
The Day of Atonement
The First Day of the Feast of
Tabernacles
The Eighth Day Assembly
In addition, the
weekly Sabbath is also called a "holy convocation."
And there are
three annual Feasts, with the Holy Days listed above
gathered just before, during, or just after those Feasts.
The Feast of
Unleavened Bread
The Feast of Pentecost
The Feast of
Tabernacles
Many people
who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, whether they refer
to themselves as "Christian" or "Messianic," observe the
biblical Holy Days and Feasts
as times of worship, fellowship, and celebration. They believe
that these Holy Days and Feasts are shadows pointing to the
reality of Jesus. And they believe that there are valuable
spiritual lessons to be learned year by year through actually
physically setting aside these Times of Refreshing as "appointments with God."
See
What Is a Biblical "Feast"? for more
details on this topic.
For more
about the biblical Feasts and Holy Days in general, see the article
Theme Times elsewhere on this Times of Refreshing
website.
For an
explanation of the Christian observance of each of the Feasts
and Holy Days as
they come in their seasons, explore the links on the navigation
bar above.
For
sources of the Hebrew, Greek, and English definitions in this
and other articles on this website, see the
Information page.
For sources
of the Biblical quotations in this and other articles on this
website, see the Information page.
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Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
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