Passover (Pesach) is celebrated on the 14th day of the first month, Nisan. It is a remembrance of the sacrifice of an unblemished, male lamb; whose blood saved the 1st born sons of the Israelites. It is in fact a dress rehearsal for the sacrifice of God’s First-Born Son, the Lamb of God, to save all men.

Unleavened Bread (Chag Matzot) begins on the 15th of Nisan with the Seder Meal which was both the sacrificial meal for the Paschal lamb and a Todah offering of unleavened bread and wine. The Todah was in thanksgiving for the deliverance, about to be provided, by the blood of the paschal lamb: the angel of death would see the blood on the door posts and lintel of the homes of those who had participated in the Seder meals. The Angel of death would then “pass over” their houses (Ex 12:21-23). The word “Todah” means “thanksgiving”. Todah in the Greek is “Eucharistia”. The Seder is a dress rehearsal for the Eucharist: a Todah, Eucharistic, offering of bread and wine in thanksgiving for the deliverance [from sin] accomplished through the blood of the Lamb of God. The Last Supper, a Seder meal, was initiated on the 15th of Nisan, according to the Essene calendar. God uses both calendars! The Last Supper was an “un-bloody” sacrifice; as the Essenes were not allowed to offer sacrifice in the temple. It was completed on the cross, with the completion of the Seder ritual’s consumption of the 4th cup and the declaration of the Nirtzah: “It is finished”. That happened right before the death of the Paschal lamb, the Lamb of God, on the Feast of Passover: Nisan 14 on the Temple calendar! Jesus, the Lamb of God, had been selected by the people on Lamb Selection Day as the lamb for sacrifice for all the people.

First Fruits (Reishit Katzir) is the celebration of the first fruits of the harvest. It is an acknowledgement that God continues to provide for us. Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection, opening the Kingdom of God and demonstrating that God continues to provide for us for all eternity (1Cor 15:20). First Fruits was the third day: Passover Eve (the day the Lamb of God died on the cross) is the first day; the first day of Unleavened Bread (the Seder) is the second day; and First Fruits is the third day. First Fruits was the day Jesus rose from the grave. So, in answer to the question: Where does it say in scripture that the Messiah must die and rise on the third day? Something we profess to believe every time we say the Nicene Creed at Mass: “and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures”. Although most scholars will quote Hos 6:2, it is specifically in the fulfillment of Passover and First Fruits! (Lev 23:1-14). Passover, Nisan 15, is always a Sabbath. The calendar is always tweaked so that two Sabbaths will never occur back to back: Friday & Saturday or Saturday & Sunday. That was because no cooking was done on the Sabbath and without refrigeration food would not keep for two days without cooking. Thus the Feast of First Fruits is always on the 3rd day.

Pentecost (Shavuot) means 50 days and is the 50th day after First Fruits. It is a memorial of the day God himself came down on Mount Sinai in a cloud of fire and smoke and a blast of God’s trumpet (Ex 19:18-19), to ratify the covenant with his people. It is a dress rehearsal for the day the Holy Spirit comes down as flames of fire on the disciples, with a noise loud enough to draw a crowd of over 3,000 to the Cenacle, to ratify the new covenant written in our hearts.

Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) is celebrated on the 1st day of the 7th month. The feast celebrates God judgement: when all the world is judged before God’s throne. [11] It is unfulfilled but thought to be the warning or illumination when everyone will see themselves as God sees them. The first of the three events that must yet be fulfilled before the Messiah returns is that the Gospel must have reached all men. If you think about it the only way that can happen is with the warning, a supernatural event in which all men recognize the truth. It is interesting to note that it is the only event that happens to everyone in the world on the same day, the Feasts of Trumpets. If you think about it there is no time when it is the same day everywhere in the world, but Trumpets is also a 2-day feast, oh what a coincidence!

Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the holiest day of the year. It is celebrated on the 10th day of the 7th month. It is unfulfilled. It is thought to be when the Jewish nation will acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. The second event, that must happen before the end, is the appearance of the anti-Christ; and the third event is the conversion of the Jews. That third event is not meant to be the personal conversion of every Jew but rather the acknowledgement by the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, that Jesus was/is the Messiah.

Tabernacles (Succot), the Feast of “God with us”, in Hebrew “Emanuel”, is on the 15th day of the 7th month. It is the feast that celebrates God’s physical presence with the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light during the Exodus (Ex 13:21). The feast is celebrated by living in “Sukkot”, tents with a thatched roof, though which the stars must be visible, and rain must leak into the dwelling. On the feast of Tabernacles four giant menorahs were constructed in the court of women in the temple which like the pillar of fire during the Exodus provided light for all of Jerusalem. Tabernacles is a dress rehearsal for the birth of Jesus; when God came to live among his people as the Light of the World and the Source of Living Water. Jesus was born in a stable, which with the thatched roof qualified as a sukkah. The stable was used to protect infant lambs during their first week of life, while they were still vulnerable to the weather. Jesus, like infant lambs, was inspected by Levitical Shepherds and found without blemish thus qualified for sacrifice on Passover: The Lamb of God!

It is interesting to note that just as it says in scripture the first shall be last and the last shall be first (Mk 10:21). Tabernacles was the first of the Feasts to be fulfilled and the last in the list on the Jewish lunar, solar calendar. The establishment of Tabernacles as the date of Jesus birth from scripture and its reasonableness according to extra biblical sources is covered in detail at the start of the Dates of the birth and death of Jesus- Jewish Temple Priest Rotation- Courses of Priest from 70 AD to 4 BC.