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Yeshua was absolutely not born on December 25th or anywhere remotely close to it. While this is a topic that is broad enough to warrant it’s own teaching, we do know with a good amount of certainty that He would have been born during either the Spring Festivals or the Fall Festivals given in Torah. While I have heard good arguments for both, it is my current position to accept that He was born during Sukkot, also called the Feast of Tabernacles. But this point is not really what is important to this study.
Yeshua is recorded in Scripture as celebrating many of the Feasts of Yahweh given in Torah, as well as the two minor feasts of Hanukkah (also called the Feast of Dedication and the Festival of Lights) and Purim (which commemorates the deliverance of God’s people recorded in the Book of Esther). Though a couple appear to be “missing” from the record, the pattern seems clear that He celebrated all of them as a Torah-observant Jew. Let’s take a look at records from the Gospel writings where He is found celebrating these Feasts.
• Pesach, aka The Feast of Passover, including The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 2, Luke 22, John 2, John 6, John 11-13)
• Sukkot, aka The Feast of Tabernacles (John 7)
• Hanukkah (John 10)
• Purim (John 5)
That He likely celebrated even the minor festivals of Hanukkah and Purim seem to be enough to conclude that He would have most certainly celebrated all of the commanded Feasts from Torah, which include Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. While there are a couple of the Feasts not specifically mentioned in the Gospels, perhaps most notably Shavuot (Pentecost), we do know that Yeshua was brought up in a Torah-observant family as Luke 2:39 (TLV) tells us, “When Joseph and Miriam had completed everything according to the Torah of Adonai, they returned to the Galilee, to their own city of Natzeret.”
While Shavuot (Pentecost) is not mentioned in the life and ministry of Yeshua, we do find that the disciples were celebrating it when the Ruach HaKodesh fell upon them, marking the day for what many Christians claim to be the birth of the Christian Church. Acts 2:1-4 (TLV) records, “When the day of Shavuot had come, they were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And tongues like fire spreading out appeared to them and settled on each one of them. They were all filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh and began to speak in other tongues as the Ruach enabled them to speak out.”
There is no reason to doubt that Yeshua: raised in a Torah-observant family, a Jewish Rabbi, and most importantly the Hebrew Messiah, made it a point to celebrate the Holy Feasts of His Father. We also know that He certainly did not celebrate Christmas and Easter as these festivals either didn’t exist in His lifetime, or they would at the very least have still been the pagan celebrations that would eventually be turned into unbiblical Christian celebrations. We must always remember that in Deuteronomy 12:29-31 (TLV) we are instructed, “When Adonai your God cuts off before you the nations that you are going in to dispossess, when you have dispossessed them and settled in their land, be careful not to be trapped into imitating them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.’ You are not to act like this toward Adonai your God! For every abomination of Adonai, which He hates, they have done to their gods—they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.”
I often wonder why Christians neglect the seven Torah-commanded celebrations and the two additional celebrations of Hanukkah and Purim, several of which lasting many days or even longer than a week, which Yeshua Himself celebrated, only to trade them for 2 or 3 pagan celebrations (Christmas, Easter, and, for the truly backslidden, Halloween) that only last a day each.
It’s almost like the Sabbath Day. Christians act like they would rather work seven days a week, which seems like it would part of the curse (Genesis 3:9 “By the sweat of your brow will you eat food, until you return to the ground, since from it were you taken. For you are dust, and to dust will you return”) than to take the God-appointed day of rest called Shabbat that begins Friday evening at sunset and concludes Saturday evening at sunset. Having only two days a year designated for commemorating our Messiah’s birth and resurrection instead of nine celebrations that total about thirty days in the year as depicted on the Hebrew Calendar. Why Christians don’t do what their “Christ” did is something I simply don’t understand.
Holidays or Holy Days, which do you observe?
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