Holidays; Holy and Pagan: Pentecost and May Day

Shavu’ot (Pentecost) and May Day


And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the Lord. Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. – Lev. 23:15-21

Biblical Month: Sivan

Secular Month: May/June

Shavu’ot, Pentecost, Feast of Weeks. It is a High Holy Day, but it doesn’t seem to be as well-known or as popular as Passover or Yom Kippur, but it is in some ways the central Feast, because without Shavu’ot, there would be no Sabbath, or Passover, or Yom Kippur, because Shavu’ot is first and foremost the commemoration of the giving of the Torah (Law) which tells us about and commands us to celebrate the High Holy Days as recorded in Leviticus 23. It also commemorates the giving of the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) who shows us how to live out the Torah correctly.

Pesach (Passover) through Shavu’ot (including the Feast of First Fruits) should be seen as a continuous process. If you have accepted the true Passover Lamb (Jn. 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7), you are promised resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23), because He, Yeshua, is the first fruits of the greater resurrection harvest, and you are part of the body of the Messiah (Acts 2;1 ; 1 Cor. 12:13).

Lev 23:15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: 

 16Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. 

 20And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 

 21And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 

 22And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God. 

 Num. 19:10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, 

 11And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. 

 12And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: 

 13There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. 

 14And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. 

 15And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives. 

 16And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. 

 17And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 

 18And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 

 19And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 

 20And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. 

Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 

 3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 

 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

 5And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 

 6Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 

 7And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? 

 8And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 

 9Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 

 10Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 

 11Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 

 

It is traditional to hear the reading of the 10 Commandments and it is also traditional to read the Book of Ruth which is all about harvest, but also hints about Acts 2, 10, 15, when Gentiles would be welcomed into the Body of Messiah, because Ruth was a Gentile who converted to Judaism by marrying the Jew Boaz, and is also in the linage of Messiah Yeshua.

Because Torah is seen as our spiritual food that was given to the fledgling nation of Israel in the Wilderness, it is seen as milk given to a baby and so it is traditional to consume dairy products on this day as well in commemoration of the Torah.

Since it’s about first fruits it is also traditional to decorate the home and synagogue with flowers and harvest-y type things.

Three days prior to Shavu’ot it is traditional to abstain from sexual relations and carries some of the restrictions of Yom Kippur, because God commanded the Israelites to purify themselves 3 days before He came and gave the Torah at Sinai. The night before it is traditional to stay up all night and study the Torah with friends, since the Holiday is focused on the giving of the Torah.

Yeshua Messiah is the first fruit of the resurrection; He is also the Living Manifestation of the Written Torah. These are some ways Shavu’ot teaches us a little more about the Messiah.

May Day

May 1^st, May Day is not the most popular or well-known of pagan holidays but it is seeing a resurgence as the religion of Wicca, Nordic religion and paganism in general is seeing a revival of sorts. Most all anyone knows of May Day is going around the Maypole; decorating it with multicolored ribbons, creating a colorful braid down the pole as it is being circled, and May baskets. Seems an innocent way to celebrate Spring and the coming Summer. It’s just children frolicking and dancing around a pole with ribbons and baskets, right? But what is this day really all about?

May Day stems from the Celtic and now Wiccan festival of Beltane, another form of Baal (sun) and Ishtar (fertility) worship. The Maypole is a phallic symbol, and the circling ribbons being braided round the pole round represents intercourse and conception. Religious orgies would also take place around ancient Maypoles.

May 1^st is one of the eight days of the year sacred to Satan; it is a witch's sabbath. Some people believe that the Maypole was a spiritual vortex or gateway by which demons trapped in the earth could be released. Interestingly enough, All Saints Day, on November 1^st. This day falls exactly six months after May Day, and is another witches' sabbath. May 1^st is also called a cross-quarter day which is a day falling approximately halfway between a solstice and an equinox. Wiccans call the cross-quarter days, “the Greater Shabbats,” or the greater sabbaths. This is a cross-quarter day, coming between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice and six months later, Halloween, another satanic holiday.

Maia and Flora, Greece and Rome

Also connected with May Day is Maia, the ancient Greek fertility goddess after whom the month of May is named. In England, May Day represents the coming together of two pagan traditions: The worship of Maia, a Greek fertility goddess in the spring and the worship of a sea goddess, Maid Marian.

The ancient Romans, over 2,000 years ago, celebrated a  5 day long holiday called, “Floralia or the Festival of Flora,” on the 1^st of May, honoring the goddess of flowers. Just like Beltane it was a fertility festival, were feasting, dancing and orgies took place.

May Day and its traditions and observances for environmentalist has its connections to Gia, Mother Earth.

Mary’s Day and Walpurgis Night

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church “Christianized,” this pagan holiday by making it a celebration of the Virgin Mary in which statues of Mary would be decorated with flowers and May Baskets with baked good would be left on peoples door steps. Here again you have the allusion of cakes made to the Queen of Heaven (Jer. 7, 44).

In Germany, May Day took the form of Walpurgis Night, which was a celebration of Saint Walpurga, and 8^th century Roman Catholic missionary. On this night bon-fires would be lit and as feasting, dancing and fertility rituals would take place.

It is quite disturbing to see how satan has counterfeited and substituted God’s Divinely Appointed Holy Days for his own perverted days of worship and has pasted them off in the modern day as innocent and fun celebrations of the seasons.