Descriptions
Sabbath(Shabbat)
Leviticus 23:3 lists the Sabbath first among the LORD's appointed times: six days of work, and on the seventh day a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation, on which no work is to be done. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all their dwelling places. Exodus 20:8-11 grounds it in the creation week (Genesis 2:1-3), while Deuteronomy 5:12-15 grounds it in the deliverance from Egypt.
Weekly, every seventh day. Colossians 2:16-17 names a Sabbath as 'a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.' Hebrews 4:9-10 speaks of a remaining Sabbath rest (Greek sabbatismos) for the people of God. Whether these texts abrogate, transform, or affirm the weekly observance is disputed among careful readers and is not resolved by the wording itself.
Passover(Pesach)
Leviticus 23:5 sets the LORD's Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight (Hebrew: 'between the evenings'). The institution in Exodus 12 commands each household to slaughter a lamb and put its blood on the doorposts, so the destroyer would pass over Israel in the final plague on Egypt. Numbers 28:16 restates the date within the sacrificial calendar.
A single day (Nisan 14), immediately followed by the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. 1 Corinthians 5:7 states directly: 'For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.' The Gospels place Jesus' death at Passover season; John 19:36 applies the unbroken-bone stipulation (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12) to him, which is an explicit textual link.
Feast of Unleavened Bread(Chag HaMatzot)
Leviticus 23:6-8 sets the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the fifteenth day of the first month, lasting seven days, during which only unleavened bread is eaten. The first day and the seventh day are holy convocations on which no ordinary work is done. Exodus 12:15-20 ties the removal of leaven to the haste of the exodus from Egypt.
Seven days (Nisan 15-21), following Passover so closely that the NT and Josephus often treat the two together as one festival. 1 Corinthians 5:8 draws on the imagery directly: 'let us celebrate the festival... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth,' interpreting leaven as 'malice and evil.'
Feast of Firstfruits(Bikkurim)
Leviticus 23:9-14 commands that when Israel reaps the harvest, they bring the first sheaf of the grain to the priest, who waves it before the LORD 'on the day after the Sabbath' for acceptance. No bread, grain, or fresh ears are to be eaten until this offering is made. A lamb, a grain offering, and a drink offering accompany the wave sheaf.
Day is disputed: 'the day after the Sabbath' (Leviticus 23:11) was read by the Pharisees/rabbinic tradition as Nisan 16 (the day after the first-day festival Sabbath), and by the Sadducees/Boethusians as the Sunday within the feast. This is why hebrew_day is null. 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23 calls the risen Christ 'the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep' — an explicit textual use of this feast's imagery.
Feast of Weeks(Shavuot)
Leviticus 23:15-22 commands counting fifty days from the day of the firstfruits wave offering ('the day after the Sabbath'), then presenting a new grain offering of two loaves baked with leaven as firstfruits to the LORD. It is a holy convocation on which no ordinary work is done. Verse 22 attaches a command to leave the edges of the harvest for the poor and the sojourner.
Called Pentecost (Greek pentekoste, 'fiftieth') because of the fifty-day count. Traditionally reckoned to Sivan 6, though the exact date depends on how 'the day after the Sabbath' is counted (see Firstfruits). Note the two loaves are baked WITH leaven (Leviticus 23:17), unlike the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Acts 2:1-4 records the outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurring 'when the day of Pentecost arrived'; the text states the timing but does not itself label the event a fulfillment of the feast — that connection is typological.
Feast of Trumpets(Yom Teruah)
Leviticus 23:23-25 sets the first day of the seventh month as a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of trumpets (Hebrew teruah), a holy convocation on which no ordinary work is done, with a food offering to the LORD. The text names it only as a day of trumpet blasts; it does not assign it a further explanation. Numbers 29:1-6 details the accompanying offerings.
A single day (Tishri 1). Later Jewish tradition calls it Rosh Hashanah (the civil new year), but that name and function are not in the Leviticus text. Some readers connect the trumpet imagery to 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16, but those passages do not cite this feast; any such link is typological, not stated in the text, and nt_fulfillment_refs is left empty accordingly.
Day of Atonement(Yom Kippur)
Leviticus 23:26-32 sets the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month as a Sabbath of solemn rest and a holy convocation on which the people are to 'afflict themselves' (fast) and do no work, on pain of being cut off. It is the day atonement is made to cleanse the people before the LORD (Leviticus 16:30). Leviticus 16 gives the full ritual: the high priest enters the Most Holy Place with sacrificial blood, and one goat is sent away bearing the people's iniquities.
A single day (Tishri 10). Hebrews 9:7 explicitly references the once-a-year entry of the high priest into the second tent (the Day of Atonement ritual of Leviticus 16), and Hebrews 9:11-12 contrasts it with Christ entering the holy places 'once for all' by his own blood — a specific, text-stated connection to this feast, not a wholesale reading of Hebrews 9-10.
Feast of Tabernacles(Sukkot)
Leviticus 23:33-43 sets the Feast of Booths on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, lasting seven days, with a holy convocation on the first day and a solemn assembly on the eighth. Israel is to take the fruit of splendid trees, palm branches, and boughs and rejoice before the LORD, and to dwell in booths for seven days 'that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.'
Seven days (Tishri 15-21) plus an eighth-day assembly (Shemini Atzeret, Leviticus 23:36). John 7:2 places Jesus at this feast, and John 7:37-39 records his 'living water' declaration 'on the last day of the feast, the great day' — the text ties the saying to the feast's setting but does not itself declare the feast fulfilled; the water-libation background is contextual/typological.
Purim
Esther 9:20-32 records Mordecai and Queen Esther establishing the annual observance of Purim on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar, as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies. It is kept as days of feasting, gladness, sending portions of food to one another, and gifts to the poor. The name derives from 'pur,' the lot cast by Haman (Esther 3:7; 9:24) to determine the day of their destruction.
Two days (Adar 14-15; Adar 15 as Shushan Purim in walled cities, Esther 9:18-19). Unlike the feasts of Leviticus 23, Purim is not one of the appointed times commanded by the LORD; it is instituted by Mordecai and Esther and confirmed by the community (Esther 9:27, 32). Included here as a canonical festival for completeness. No NT text references it.
Hanukkah
[Apocrypha — 1 Maccabees 4:36-59] After Judas Maccabeus and his brothers recaptured Jerusalem, they cleansed the temple that had been defiled by Antiochus IV, built a new altar, and rededicated the sanctuary. 1 Maccabees 4:59 records that Judas and the assembly ordained the dedication of the altar to be kept for eight days each year beginning on the twenty-fifth of Kislev, with gladness and joy. The account is preserved in the deuterocanonical books, not in the Protestant canon.
Eight days beginning Kislev 25. Labeled apocryphal: 1 and 2 Maccabees are deuterocanonical in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, non-canonical in Protestant and most Messianic Jewish traditions. The canonical NT does reference the festival: John 10:22-23 notes 'the Feast of Dedication' (Greek ta enkainia) in Jerusalem, in winter, with Jesus walking in the temple — a direct canonical mention of the feast's observance, not a statement of fulfillment. The later tradition of the miraculous eight-day oil supply comes from the Talmud (b. Shabbat 21b), not from 1 Maccabees.