Bible Festivals

The earliest parts of the traditional church calendar are loosely based on selected portions of a festival cycle found in the Old Testament. We at Wascana Fellowship have chosen to set up our church calendar in a manner that makes that connection more clear, using the dates that (to the best of our limited ability to discern) were given to ancient Israel when they left Egypt.

Days of Unleavened Bread (called Passover in the New Testament)
Pentecost (called “Festival of Weeks” in the Old Testament)
Festival of Trumpets (called a “memorial of blowing of trumpets” in the Old Testament)
Day of Atonement
Festival of Tabernacles (called Festival of “Booths” or “Shelters”)
Eighth Day (the day after the Festival of Tabernacles)

These days had symbolic or prophetic significance in their original context of the national life of Israel. The first two eventually were accommodated to the Roman calendar and are now celebrated by the mainstream of Christianity as Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost. (Much of the book of Hebrews refers to ceremonies of the Day of Atonement that were completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and which are therefore now redundant.)

Please note that we do not believe that anybody gets extra credit with God for following our particular calendar. We are not Jewish. We are not trying to be Jewish. We do not sacrifice animals (nor do Jewish people!) or wear unusual clothing on these days. And we do not believe that people who do things according to the Old Covenant law can earn salvation in any way.

We celebrate the fact that God kept his promises to the people of Israel by sending a Jewish Messiah to save all people, Jewish and non-Jewish. We celebrate many of the festivals that Jesus himself celebrated because we are not ashamed of his Jewishness. We do not believe it is inherently wrong to celebrate at these times just because they are found in the Old Testament. For this reason we have reason to hope that ours will never become an anti-Semitic fellowship.