The Feast of Tabernacles is an annual holy day celebration. We are given a bare bones outline of how this biblical festival was to be kept in Leviticus 23 33-44.

• When is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles
• How many days the Feast of Tabernacles lasts
• What to do on the first day
• Offerings to make each day
• The meaning of the festival

When does the Feast of Tabernacles start?

The Feast of Tabernacles starts on on the 15th day of the seventh month on the biblical calendar and lasts 7 days (Leviticus 23:34). Today most of us use a different calendar (invented by Julius Caesar) that means the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated in the fall of our calendar year (usually in September or October) depending on how the cycles of the two calendars match up.

The first day of the Feast of Tabernacles

The first day of of the Feast of Tabernacles is an annual sabbath. Like the weekly sabbath the first day of teh Feast of Tabernacles is a day of rest and we are not to work. Like the weekly sabbath on the first day fo the Feast of Tabernacles we are to gather together before God in a solemn assembly (Lev 23:35-36).

Offerings during the Feast of Tabernacles

God instructs us to make an offering on each day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:36). The instructions to make an offering have changed for us today because Jesus Christ has made himself the perfect offering that only needed to be offered once for all (Hebrews 7:27).

As Christians who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins there is no more need to offer the life of a bull, goat or other animal to atone for our sins. Instead Christians are to offer themselves as living sacrifices by living a life holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). In this way Christians continue to make a sacrifice on each of the 7 days of the Feast of Tabernacles by presenting ourselves before him in worship.

The Meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles

God told His people to observe the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles by taking branches of palm and other trees to make temporary dwellings for themselves. These were essentially huts. Many translations of the bible call them booths. This practice was to remind them of their time in the wilderness when they were saved from their slavery in Egypt. See also: Nehemiah 8:11-18