Feasts and Fasts in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

fests (mo`edh, "an appointed day" or "an assembling," chagh, from chaghagh, "to dance" or possibly "to make a pilgrimage"; tsom, "fast," ta`anith, "a day of affliction"): I. PRE-EXILIC A) Annual 1. Passover, 15th-22d Nican 2. Pentecost, 6th Ciwan ) Pilgrimage 3. Tabernacles, 15th-22d Tishri ) Festivals 4. Shemini `Atsereth, 23d Tishri 5. New Year, Feast of Trumpets, 1st Tishri 6. Atonement, 10th Tishri B) Periodic 1. Weekly Sabbath 2. New Moon 3. Sabbath Year 4. Jubilee Year II. POST-EXILIC 1. Feast of Dedication, 25th Kiclew 2. Fast of Esther, 13th 'Adhar 3. Feast of Purim, 14th 'Adhar 4. Fast of the Fourth Month, 17th Tammuz 5. Fast of the Fifth Month, 9th 'Abh 6. Fast of the Seventh Month, 3rd Tishri 7. Fast of the Tenth Month, 10th Tebheth 8. Feast of Acra, 23d Iyar 9. Feast of Nicanor, 18th 'Adhar 10. Feast of Woodcarrying, Midsummer Day, 15th 'Abh 11. New Year for Trees, 15th ShebhaT 12. Bi-weekly Fasts, Mondays and Thursdays after Festivals 13. Second Days of Festivals Instituted 14. New Modes of Observing Old Festivals Instituted The Nature of the Hebrew Festivals: The Hebrews had an abundance of holidays, some based, according to their tradition, on agriculture and the natural changes of times and seasons, some on historical events connected with the national or religious life of Israel, and still others simply on immemorial custom. in most instances two or more of these bases coexist, and the emphasis on the natural, the agricultural, the national, or the religious phase will vary with different writers, different context, or different times. Any classification of these feasts and fasts on the basis of original significance must therefore be imperfect. We should rather classify them as preexilic and post-exilic, because the period of the Babylonian captivity marks a complete change, not only in the kinds of festivals instituted from time to time, but also in the manner of celebrating the old. I. Pre-exilic. The pre-exilic list includes the three pilgrimage festivals, the Passover week, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, together with the Eighth Day of Assembly at the conclusion of the last of these feasts, and New Year and Atonement Days, the weekly Sabbath and the New Moon. 1. Observances Common to All: The preexilic festivals were "holy convocations" (Lev 23; Nu 28). Special sacrifices were offered on them in addition to the daily offerings. These sacrifices, however, varied according to the character of the festival (Nu 28; 29). On all of them trumpets (chatsotseroth) were blown while the burnt offerings and the peace-offerings were being sacrificed (Nu 10:10). They were all likened to the weekly Sabbath as days of rest, on which there must...