Feasts

VIEW:42 DATA:01-04-2020

FEASTS.—Introductory.—The sacred festivals of the Jews were primarily occasions of rejoicing, treated as a part of religion. To ‘rejoice before God’ was synonymous with ‘to celebrate a festival.’ In process of time this characteristic was modified, and a probably late institution, like the Day of Atonement, could be regarded as a feast, though its prevalent note was not one of joy. But the most primitive feasts were marked by religious merriment; they were accompanied with dances (Jdg_21:21), and, as it seems, led to serious excesses in many cases (1Sa_1:13, Amo_2:7, 2Ki_23:7, Deu_23:18). Most of the feasts were only local assemblies for acts and purposes of sacred worship; but the three great national festivals were the occasions for general assemblies of the people, at which all males were supposed to appear (Exo_23:14; Exo_23:17; Exo_34:23, Deu_16:16).
I. Feasts connected with the Sabbath.—These were calculated on the basis of the sacred number 7, which regulated all the great dates of the Jewish sacred year. Thus the 7th was the sacred month, the feasts of Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles each lasted for 7 days, Pentecost was 49 days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover and Tabernacles each began on the 14th day of their respective months, and there were 7 days of holy convocation in the year.
1. The Sabbath and the observances akin to it were lunar in character (cf. Amo_8:5, Hos_2:11, Isa_1:13, 2Ki_4:23). The Sabbath ordinances are treated in Exo_20:11; Exo_31:17 as designed to commemorate the completion of creation, but Deu_5:14-15 connects them with the redemption from Egypt, and Exo_23:12 ascribes them to humanitarian motives. On this day work of all sorts was forbidden, and the daily morning and evening sacrifices were doubled. Sabbath-breaking was punishable with death (Num_15:32-36, Exo_31:14-15). No evidence of Sabbath observance is traced in the accounts of the patriarchal age, and very little in pre-exilic records (Isa_56:2; Isa_56:6; Isa_58:13, Jer_17:20-24, Eze_20:12-13; Eze_20:16; Eze_20:20). But after the Captivity the rules were more strictly enforced (Neh_13:15; Neh_13:22), and in later times the Rabbinical prohibitions multiplied to an inordinate extent. See art. Sabbath.
2. At the New Moon special sacrifices were offered (Num_28:11-15), and the silver trumpets were blown over them (Num_10:10). All trade and business were discontinued, as well as work in the fields (Amo_8:5). It appears also that this was the occasion of a common sacred meal and family sacrifices (cf. 1Sa_20:5-6; 1Sa_20:18; 1Sa_20:24), and it seems to have been a regular day on which to consult prophets (2Ki_4:23).
3. The Feast of Trumpets took place at the New Moon of the 7th month, Tishri (October). See Trumpets.
4. The Sabbatical year.—An extension of the Sabbath principle led to the rule that in every 7th year the land was to be allowed to lie fallow, and fields were to be neither tilled nor reaped. See Sabbatical Year.
5. By a further extension, every 50th year was to be treated as a year of Jubilee, when Hebrew slaves were emancipated and mortgaged property reverted to its owners. See Sabbatical Year.
II. Great National Festivals.—These were solar festivals, and mostly connected with different stages of the harvest; the Jews also ascribed to them a commemorative significance, and traditionally referred their inauguration to various events of their past history. They were:—
1. The Passover, followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These two feasts were probably distinct in origin (Lev_23:5-6, Num_28:16-17), and Josephus distinguishes between them; but in later times they were popularly regarded as one (Mar_14:12, Luk_22:1). The Passover festival is probably of great antiquity, but the Feast of Unleavened Bread, being agricultural in character, can scarcely have existed before the Israelites entered Canaan. For the characteristic features of the two festivals, see Passover.
2. Pentecost, on the 50th day after 16th Nisan (April), celebrated the completion of the corn harvest. See Pentecost.
3. The Feast of Tabernacles, the Jewish harvest-home, took place at the period when the harvests of fruit, oil, and wine had been gathered in. See Tabernacles.
III. Minor Historical Festivals
1. The Feast of Purim, dating from the Persian period of Jewish history, commemorated the nation’s deliverance from the intrigues of Haman. See Purim.
2. The Feast of the Dedication recalled the purification of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes. See Dedication.
3. The Feast of the Wood-offering or of the Wood-carriers, on the 15th day of Abib (April), marked the last of the nine occasions on which offerings of wood were brought for the use of the Temple (Neh_10:34; Neh_13:31).
Besides these there were certain petty feasts, alluded to in Josephus and the Apocrypha, but they seem never to have been generally observed or to have attained any religious importance. Such are: the Feast of the Reading of the Law (1Es_9:50, cf. Neh_8:9); the Feast of Nicanor on the 13th day of Adar (March) (1Ma_7:49; see Purim); the Feast of the Captured Fortress (1Ma_13:50-52); the Feast of Baskets.
A. W. F. Blunt.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Hag (from a root, "to dance") is the Hebrew applied to the Passover, and still more to the feast of tabernacles, as both were celebrated with rejoicings and participation of food (Exo_12:14; Lev_23:39; Num_29:12; Deu_16:39). But moed is the general term for all sacred assemblies convoked on stated anniversaries; God's people by His appointment meeting before Him in brotherly fellowship for worship. Their communion was primarily with God, then with one another. These national feasts tended to join all in one brotherhood. Hence, arose Jeroboam's measures to counteract the effect on his people (1Ki_12:26-27). Hezekiah made the revival of the national Passover a primary step in his efforts for a reformation (2Ch_30:1). The Roman government felt the feast a time when especial danger of rebellion existed (Mat_26:5; Luk_13:1).
The "congregations," "calling of assemblies," "solemn meetings" (Isa_1:13; Psa_81:3), both on the convocation days of the three great feasts, passover, Pentecost, and tabernacles, and also on the sabbaths, imply assemblies for worship, the forerunners of the synagogue (compare 2Ki_4:23). The septenary number prevails in the great feasts. Pentecost was seven weeks (sevens) after Passover; passover and the feast of tabernacles lasted seven days each; the days of holy convocation were seven in the year, two at Passover, one at pentecost, one at the feast of trumpets, one on the day of atonement (the first day or new moon of the seventh month), and two at the feast of tabernacles. The last two solemn days were in the seventh month, and the cycle of feasts is seven months, from Nisan to Tisri. There was also the sabbatical year, and the year of Jubilee.
The continued observance of the three feasts commemorative of the great facts of Israelite history make it incredible that the belief of those facts could have been introduced at any period subsequent to the supposed time of their occurrence if they never took place. The day, the month, and every incident of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt are embalmed in the anniversary passover. On the three great feasts each Israelite was bound to "appear before the Lord," i.e., attend in the court of the tabernacle or temple and make his offering with gladness (Leviticus 23; Deu_27:7). Pious women often went up to the Passover: as Luk_2:41, Mary; 1Sa_1:7; 1Sa_2:19, Hannah. Those men who might happen to be unable to attend at the proper time kept the feast the same day in the succeeding month (Num_9:10-11). On the days of holy convocation all ordinary work was suspended (Lev_23:21-35). The three great feasts had a threefold bearing.
I. They marked the three points of time as to the fruits of the earth.
II. They marked three epochs in Israel's past history.
III. They pointed prophetically to three grand antitypical events of the gospel kingdom.
I. They marked the three points of time as to the fruits of the earth.
(I.) At the Passover in spring, in the month Abib, the first green ears of barley were cut, and were a favorite food, prepared as parched grain, but first of all a handful of green ears was presented to the Lord.
(2) Fifty days (as Pentecost means) after Passover came the feast of weeks, i.e. a week of weeks after Passover. The now ripe wheat, before being cut, was sanctified by its firstfruits, namely two loaves of fine flour, being offered to Jehovah.
(3) At the feast of tabernacles, in the end of the common year and the seventh month of the religious year, there was a feast of ingathering when all the fruits of the field had been gathered in. There was no offering of consecration, for the offerings for sanctifying the whole had been presented long before. It was not a consecration of what was begun, but a joyful thanksgiving for what was completed. See for the spiritual lesson Pro_3:9; Psa_118:15.
II. They marked three epochs in Israel's past history. Each of the three marked a step in the HISTORICAL progress of Israel.
(1) The Passover commemorated the deliverance out of Egypt when Jehovah passed over Israel, protecting them from the destroying angel and sparing them, and so achieving for them the first step of independent national life as God's covenant people.
(2) Pentecost marked the giving of the law on Sinai, the second grand era in the history of the elect nation. God solemnly covenanted, "If ye will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people, and ye shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exo_19:5).
(3) All the nation now wanted was a home. The feast of tabernacles commemorates the establishment of God's people in the land of promise, their pleasant and peaceful home, after the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, living in shifting tents. They took boughs of palm and willows of the brook, and made temporary huts of branches and sat under the booths. So in their fixed home and land of rest their enjoyment was enhanced by the thankful and holy remembrance of past wanderings without a fixed dwelling. Joshua especially observed this feast after the settlement in Canaan (as incidentally comes out in Neh_8:17).
Solomon (appropriately to his name, which means king of peace) also did so, for his reign was preeminently the period of peaceful possession when every man dwelt under his own vine and figtree (1Ki_4:25); immediately after that the last relic of wilderness life was abolished by the ark being taken from under curtains and deposited in the magnificent temple of stone in the seventh month (2Ch_5:3), the feast of tabernacles was celebrated on the 15th day, and on the 23rd Solomon sent the great congregation away glad in heart for the goodness that the Lord had showed unto David, Solomon, and Israel His people.
The third celebration especially recorded was after the Babylonian captivity, when the Jews were re-established in their home under Ezra and Nehemiah, and all gathered themselves together as one man on the first day of the seventh month, the feast of trumpets. Then followed the reading of the law and renewal of the covenant. Then finding in the law directions as to the feast of tabernacles, they brought branches of olive, pine, myrtle, and palm, and thick trees, and made booths on their roofs and in their courts, and in the courts of God's house, and sat under them with "great gladness" (Nehemiah 8).
III. They pointed prophetically to three grand antitypical events of the gospel kingdom. Prophetically and typically.
(1) The Passover points to the Lord Jesus, the true paschal Lamb sacrificed for us, whose sacrifice brings to us a perpetual feast (1Co_5:7).
(2) Pentecost points to our Whitsuntide (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit descending on Christ's disciples confirms Christ's covenant of grace in the heart more effectually than the law of Sinai written on stone (2Co_3:3-18).
(3) Two great steps have already been taken toward establishing the kingdom of God. Christ has risen from death as "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1Co_15:20), even as the green ears of barley were offered as firstfruits at Passover. Secondly, the Holy Spirit has not merely once descended but still abides in the church as His temple, giving us a perpetual Whitsun feast, One step more is needed; we have received redemption, also the Holy Spirit; we wait still for our inheritance and abiding home. The feast of tabernacles points on to the antitypical Canaan, the everlasting inheritance, of which the Holy Spirit is the "earnest" (Eph_1:13-14; Heb_4:8-9). The antitypical feast of tabernacles shall be under the antitypical Joshua, Jesus the Captain of our salvation, the antitypical Solomon, the Prince of peace (Isa_9:6; Rev_7:9-17).
The zest of the heavenly joy of the palmbearing multitude (antitypical to the palmbearers at the feast of tabernacles), redeemed out of all nations, shall be the remembrance of their tribulations in this wilderness world forever past; for repose is sweetest after toil, and difficulties surmounted add to the delight of triumph. Salvation was the prominent topic at the feast. In later times they used to draw water from the pool of Siloam, repeating from Isaiah 12 "with joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation," referred to by Jesus (Joh_7:2-37; Joh_7:39). So Christ shall appear the "second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb_9:28). The palm-bearing multitude accompanying Jesus at His triumphant entry into His royal capital cried "Hosanna," i.e. Save us we beseech Thee. So the prophetical Psa_118:25-26, implies that Israel shall say when in penitent faith she shall turn to her returning Lord (Mat_23:39).
So the thanksgiving song of eternity shall be, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb." Meanwhile on earth Israel, long finding no ease or rest for the sole of the foot, but having "trembling of heart, failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind" (Deu_28:65), shall at length rest in her own land under Messiah reigning at Jerusalem as His holy capital and over the whole earth, and "everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles" (Zec_14:9; Zec_14:16; Revelation 7). That feast shall remind Israel of hardships now past, and of salvation and peace now realized on earth, so that "the voice of rejoicing and salvation shall be in the tabernacles of the righteous" (Psa_118:15).
There was in the Three Feasts a clear prefigurement of the Three Persons; the Father, in the work of creation, especially adored in the feast of tabernacles; the Son in the Passover sacrifice; the Spirit in the Pentecostal feast. The times of the feasts were those least interfering with the people's industry; the Passover just before harvest; Pentecost at its conclusion and before the vintage; tabernacles after all fruits were gathered in. The feast of PURIM commemorated the baffling of Haman's plot for the Jews' destruction; the feast of Dedication the purification of the temple by the Maccabees, after its defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes.
(See ESTHER; DEDICATION, FEAST OF.)
In the New Testament Jude (Jud_1:12, "feasts of charity"; also 2Pe_2:13, mentions the Christian lovefeasts which often preceded the Lord's supper (1 Corinthians 11 end) just as the Passover preceded it in Christ's institution. (See LORD'S SUPPER.) They ate and; drank together earthly, then heavenly food, in token of unity for time and eternity. The fervent love and fellowship which characterized the first disciples originated these feasts (Act_2:45-46; Act_4:35; Act_6:1). Each brought his portion, as to a club feast; and the rich brought extra portions for the poor.
From it the bread and wine were taken for the Eucharist. In it the excesses took place which Paul censures, and which made a true and reverent celebration of the Lord's supper during or after it impossible. Hence the lovefeasts were afterward separated from the Lord's supper, and in the fourth century forbidden by the Council of Laodicea A.D. 320, and that of Carthage A.D. 391, as excesses crept in, the rulers of the church receiving double portions (Tertullian, De Jejun., 17), and the rich courting the praise of liberality. Pliny, in his famous letter to Trajan, says the Christians met and exchanged sacramental pledges against all immorality, then separated, and met again to partake of an entertainment.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Feasts. See Festivals; Meals.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

God appointed several festivals among the Jews.
1. To perpetuate the memory of great events; so, the Sabbath commemorated the creation of the world; the passover, the departure out of Egypt; the pentecost, the law given at Sinai, &c.
2. To keep them under the influence of religion, and by the majesty of that service which he instituted among them, and which abounded in mystical symbols or types of evangelical things, to convey spiritual instruction, and to keep alive the expectation of the Messiah, and his more perfect dispensation.
3. To secure to them certain times of rest and rejoicings.
4. To render them familiar with the law; for, in their religious assemblies, the law of God was read and explained.
5. To renew the acquaintance, correspondence, and friendship of their tribes and families, coming from the several towns in the country, and meeting three times a year in the holy city.
The first and most ancient festival, the Sabbath, or seventh day, commemorated the creation. “The Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” says Moses, “because that in it he had rested from all his work,” Gen_2:3. See SABBATH.
The passover was instituted in memory of the Israelites' departure out of Egypt, and of the favour which God showed his people in sparing their first-born, when he destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians, Exo_12:14, &c. See PASSOVER.
The feast of pentecost was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the passover, in memory of the law being given to Moses on Mount Sinai, fifty days after the departure out of Egypt. They reckoned seven weeks from the passover to pentecost, beginning at the day after the passover. The Hebrews call it the feast of weeks, and the Christians, pentecost, which signifies the fiftieth day.
The feast of trumpets was celebrated on the first day of the civil year; on which the trumpets sounded, proclaiming the beginning of the year, which was in the month Tisri, answering to our September, O. S. We know no religious cause of its establishment. Moses commands it to be observed as a day of rest, and that particular sacrifices should be offered at that time.
The new moons, or first days of every month, were, in some sort, a consequence of the feasts of trumpets. The law did not oblige people to rest upon this day, but ordained only some particular sacrifices. It appears that, on these days, also, the trumpet was sounded, and entertainments were made, 1Sa_20:5-18.
The feast of expiation or atonement was celebrated on the tenth day of Tisri, which was the first day of the civil year. It was instituted for a general expiation of sins, irreverences, and pollutions of all the Israelites, from the high priest to the lowest of the people, committed by them throughout the year, Lev_23:27-28; Num_29:7. See EXPIATION, Day of. The feast of tents, or tabernacle, on which all Israel were obliged to attend the temple, and to dwell eight days under tents of branches, in memory of their fathers dwelling forty years in tents, as travellers in the wilderness. It was kept on the fifteenth of the month Tisri, the first of the civil year. The first and seventh day of this feast were very solemn. But during the other days of the octave they might work, Lev_23:34-35; Num_29:12-13. At the beginning of the feast, two vessels of silver were carried in a ceremonious manner to the temple, one full of water, the other of wine, which were poured at the foot of the altar of burnt offerings, always on the seventh day of this festival.
Of the three great feasts of the year, the passover, pentecost, and that of the tabernacles, the octave, or seventh day after these feasts, was a day of rest as much as the festival itself; and all the males of the nation were obliged to visit the temple at these three feasts. But the law did not require them to continue there during the whole octave, except in the feast of tabernacles, when they seem obliged to be present for the whole seven days.
Beside these feasts, we find the feast of lots, or purim, instituted on occasion of the deliverance of the Jews from Haman's plot, in the reign of Ahasuerus. See PURIM.
The feast of the dedication of the temple, or rather of the restoration of the temple, which had been profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, 1Ma_4:52, &c, was celebrated in winter, and is supposed to be the feast of dedication mentioned in Joh_10:22. Josephus says, that it was called the feast of lights, probably because this happiness befel them when least expected, and they considered it as a new light risen on them.
In the Christian church, no festival appears to have been expressly instituted by Jesus Christ, or his Apostles. Yet, as we commemorate the passion of Christ as often as we celebrate his Supper, he seems by this to have instituted a perpetual feast. Christians have always celebrated the memory of his resurrection, and observe this feast on every Sunday, which was commonly called the Lord's day, Rev_1:10. By inference we may conclude this festival to have been instituted by Apostolic authority.
The birth-day of Christ, commonly called Christmas-day, has been generally observed by his disciples with gratitude and joy. His birth was the greatest blessing ever bestowed on mankind. The angels from heaven celebrated it with a joyful hymn; and every man, who has any feeling of his own lost state without a Redeemer, must rejoice and be glad in it. “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, Isa_9:6. For this festival, however, there is no authority in Scripture, nor do we know that it was observed in the age of the Apostles.
On Easter Sunday we celebrate our Saviour's victory over death and hell, when, having on the cross made an atonement for the sin of the world, he rose again from the grave, brought life and immortality to light, and opened to all his faithful servants the way to heaven. On this great event rest all our hopes. “If Christ be not risen,” says St. Paul, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept,” 1Co_15:14; 1Co_15:20.
Forty days after his resurrection, our Lord ascended into heaven, in the sight of his disciples. This is celebrated on what is called Ascension-day, or Holy Thursday. Ten days after his ascension, our Lord sent the Holy Spirit to be the comforter and guide of his disciples. This blessing is commemorated on Whit-Sunday, which is a very great festival, and may be profitably observed; for the assistance of the Holy Spirit can alone support us through all temptations, and guide us into all truth.
The pretended success of some in discovering the remains of certain holy men, called “relics,” multiplied in the fourth century of the Christian church the festivals and commemorations of the martyrs in a most extravagant manner. These days, instead of being set apart for pious exercises, were spent in indolence, voluptuousness, and criminal pursuits; and were less consecrated to the service of God, than employed in the indulgence of sinful passions. Many of these festivals were instituted on a Pagan model, and perverted to similar purposes.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

Israelites were largely a farming people, and their religious festivals, or feasts, were built into the agricultural cycle (see FARMING). There were three main annual festivals: Passover-Unleavened Bread and Pentecost-Harvest at the beginning of the year, and Tabernacles-Ingatherings in the middle of the year. (For the Israelite calendar see MONTH.) On these three occasions all adult males had to go to the central place of worship, which was originally the tabernacle and later the temple (Exo_23:14-17).
The Israelite festivals recalled the nation’s history, but they were also relevant to the people’s current experiences. Within the festivals there was a mixture of solemnity and joy, as the sinful people were humbled before their God yet thankful to him for his merciful salvation and constant provision (Lev_23:2; Lev_23:21; Deu_16:11-12).
Passover and Unleavened Bread
God decreed that the month during which the Israelites escaped from bondage in Egypt should be the first month of their religious year (Exo_12:2). (This Jewish month fits somewhere into the period of March-April on our calendar.) In the middle of the month the people kept the Passover, followed by the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev_23:5-8; Mar_14:1). The Passover recalled God’s ‘passing over’ the houses of the Israelites when he killed the firstborn throughout Egypt (Exo_12:27). The accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread recalled the people’s hasty departure from Egypt when they had to make their bread without leaven (yeast), cooking as they travelled in order to save time (Exo_12:8; Exo_12:34; Exo_12:39). (For details of the Passover rituals see PASSOVER.)
Once the Israelites had settled in Canaan, the festival became an occasion to acknowledge God’s care in giving them their grain harvest. At Passover time the barley was ready for harvest, but before the people could reap it and use it for themselves, they had to acknowledge God as the giver. Therefore, on the third day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they presented the first sheaf of reaped barley to God. They accompanied this with animal sacrifices that expressed confession, gratitude and dedication (Lev_23:10-14; Num_28:16-25).
Feast of Harvest (Pentecost)
After the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the people returned home and for the next six weeks were busy harvesting, first the barley and then the wheat. At the end of the wheat harvest they showed their thanks to God for their food by presenting to him two loaves of bread such as they would eat in their normal meals. Again there were additional sacrifices (Lev_23:15-21; Num_28:26-31).
Since this festival fell on the fiftieth day after Passover, it later became known as the Feast of Pentecost (‘pentecost’ meaning ‘fifty’) (Act_2:1; see PENTECOST). It was also known as the Feast of Weeks, being a week of weeks after the offering of the first barley sheaf (Deu_16:9-10). More commonly it was called the Feast of Harvest or Feast of Firstfruits.
Between the two festival seasons
After the cereal harvest there was much activity as the people threshed, winnowed and stored the grain. The hottest part of the year had now arrived, and over the next few months the figs, grapes, olives and dates ripened and were harvested. By the middle of the year, summer had almost gone, most farming activity was finished, and people began preparing for the mid-year festival season.
On the first day of the seventh month (within the period of September-October on our calendar) the ceremonial blowing of trumpets called the people together for a special day of rest and worship (Lev_23:24-25). This was to prepare them for the solemn cleansing from sin that followed ten days later on the Day of Atonement (Lev_23:26-32; for details see DAY OF ATONEMENT).
Feast of Tabernacles (or Shelters)
Five days after the Day of Atonement was the Feast of Tabernacles. The name ‘tabernacle’ in this case does not refer to the Israelite place of worship, but to small shelters, or booths, made of tree branches and palm leaves. During the festival people lived in these shelters in remembrance of Israel’s years in the wilderness (Lev_23:34; Lev_23:39-43).
The festival was also known as the Feast of Ingatherings, because it marked the end of the agricultural year, when all the produce of the land had been gathered in and the people rejoiced in thanksgiving before God (Lev_23:39; Deu_16:13-15). The number of sacrifices at this feast was greater than at any other, though the number decreased a little each day (Lev_23:36; Num_29:12-38).
There are records of Israel’s celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles after Solomon’s completion of the temple and after the Jews’ return from captivity in Babylon (2Ch_8:12-13; Ezr_3:4). They still celebrated it in the time of Jesus (Joh_7:2), and had introduced into it a water-pouring ceremony. Jesus referred to this ceremony when he addressed the people on the final day of the feast, offering to satisfy the spiritual needs of all who came to him for help (Joh_7:37-39).
Feast of Purim
The Feast of Purim was not one of the feasts appointed by God through Moses. It was established in Persia in the fifth century BC by Mordecai, a leader of the large community of Jews that had grown up in Persia after the Babylonian captivity.
Haman, Persia’s chief minister, had gained the king’s approval for a plan to destroy the Jewish people. He determined the date to carry out his plan by casting lots, or purim (purim being the Hebrew plural of the Persian-Assyrian word pur, meaning ‘lot’) (Est_3:7). In the end, however, Haman was executed and Mordecai made chief minister in his place. When Haman’s ‘lucky day’ arrived, the Jews, instead of being slaughtered, took revenge on their enemies (Est_9:1). Mordecai then ordered that Jews celebrate the great occasion with feasting, exchanging gifts and giving to the poor (Est_9:20-28; see ESTHER). Jews have celebrated the festival to the present day.
Feast of Dedication
During the second century BC, the Greek ruler of the Syrian sector of the Empire, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, used his military power to try to destroy the Jewish religion. In a brutal attack he invaded Jerusalem and slaughtered the Jews. He then defiled the Jewish temple by setting up an altar in honour of the pagan gods and sacrificing animals that the Jews considered unclean.
A group of zealous Jews, the Maccabees, began a resistance movement against Antiochus, and after three years of untiring fighting won back their religious freedom (165 BC). They promptly cleansed and rededicated the temple, in celebration of which the Jews established the annual Feast of Dedication. It was the Jews’ only winter festival (Joh_10:22-23).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

The root-idea of the word is to be found in what we should term the pleasures of the table, the exercise of hospitality.
To what an early date the practices of hospitality are referable may be seen in Gen_19:3. It was usual not only to receive persons with choice viands, but also to dismiss them in a similar manner; accordingly Laban, when he had overtaken the fleeing Jacob, complains (Gen_31:27), 'Wherefore didst thou steal away from me and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, and with tabret, and with harp?' See also 2Sa_3:20; 2Ki_6:23; Job_21:11; 1Ma_16:15. This practice explains the reason why the prodigal, on his return, was welcomed by a feast (Luk_15:23). Occasions of domestic joy were hailed with feasting; thus, in Gen_21:8, Abraham 'made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.' Birthdays were thus celebrated (Gen_40:20), 'Pharaoh, on his birthday made a feast unto all his servants' (Job_1:4; Mat_14:6; comp. Herod. i. 133). Marriage-feasts were also common. Samson (Jdg_14:10) on such an occasion 'made a feast,' and it is added, 'for so used the young men to do.' So Laban, when he gave his daughter Leah to Jacob (Gen_29:22), 'gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.' These festive occasions seem originally to have answered the important purpose of serving as evidence and attestation of the events which they celebrated, on which account relatives and neighbors were invited to be present (Rth_4:10; Joh_2:1). Those processes in rural occupations by which the Divine bounties are gathered into the hands of man, have in all ages been made seasons of festivity; accordingly in 2Sa_13:23, Absalom invites all the king's sons, and even David himself, to a sheep-shearing feast, on which occasion the guests became 'merry with wine' (1Sa_25:2, sq.). The vintage was also celebrated with festive eating and drinking (Jdg_9:27). Feasting at funerals existed among the Jews (2Sa_3:35). In Jer_16:7, among other funeral customs mention is made of 'the cup of consolation, to drink for their father or their mother,' which brings to mind the indulgence in spirituous liquors to which our ancestors were given, at interments, and which has not yet entirely disappeared. To what an extent expense was sometimes carried on these occasions, may be learned from Josephus, who, having remarked that Archelaus 'mourned for his father seven days, and had given a very expensive funeral feast to the multitude,' states, 'which custom is the occasion of poverty to many of the Jews,' adding, 'because they are forced to feast the multitude, for if any one omits it he is not esteemed a holy person.'
As among heathen nations, so also among the Hebrews, feasting made a part of the observances which took place on occasion of animal sacrifices (Deu_12:6-7; 1Sa_9:19; 1Sa_16:3; 1Sa_16:5; 2Sa_6:19). These sacrificial meals were enjoyed in connection with peace-offerings, whether eucharstic or votive. To the feast at the second tithe of the produce of the land, which was to be made every year and eaten at the annual festivals before Jehovah, not only friends, but strangers, widows, orphans, and Levites, were to be invited, as well as the slaves. If the tabernacles were so distant as to make it inconvenient to carry thither the tithe, it was to be turned into money, which was to be spent at the place at which the festivals were held in providing feasts (Deu_14:22-27; Deu_12:14; Tob_1:6). Charitable entertainments were also provided, at the end of three years, from the tithe of the increase. The Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, were to be present (Deu_12:17-19; Deu_14:28-29; Deu_26:12-15). At the feast of Pentecost the command is very express (Deu_16:11). 'Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you.' The Israelites were forbidden to partake of food offered in sacrifice to idols (Exo_34:15), lest they should be thereby enticed into idolatry or appear to give a sanction to idolatrous observances (1Co_10:28).
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

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