Shavuot
Shavout celebrates the season's first fruits.
The Jewish festival of Shavuot, (in English, the Feast of Weeks), is an agricultural holiday to celebrate the harvesting of the first fruits of the season. It also marks a pivotal event in Jewish history, when God is believed to have given the Torah – the Five books of Moses, including the Ten Commandments – to the Israelites on Mount Sinai, as they made their long journey from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.
Shavuot falls exactly seven weeks after Passover, the festival that commemorates the liberation from Egypt. Shavuot starts on the 50th day, and because of this is sometimes known in English as Pentecost. In Jewish tradition, these 50 days are counted with great anticipation, as they symbolise the step from physical liberation to spiritual redemption.
It’s traditional to eat dairy foods at this time – particularly cheesecake and blintzes, which are pancakes filled with sweetened cream cheese. Lovely!
