Thank the Lord for sending us the Helper!
You can read about Passover in the Book of Acts. All of the disciples had been gathered for nine days praying together and the Holy Spirit came down and graced them all with the gift of tongues simultaneously, which was awesome because Pentecost was one of the three Jewish festivals that required pilgrimage to the Temple for everyone who did not live in Jerusalem. So, the city was filled with Jews from all over the known world who spoke many different languages.
The tongues of fire which came down and rested on the disciples' heads is the most common depiction of Pentecost, hence the above picture. And before you point out (like my husband did) yes I realize the picture is a bit.... romanticized. :) I can't help it. I really like this painting.
Of course, according to the Jewish calendar we already had Pentecost. It began at sunset on the 18th of May. Pentecost is the Feast of "Weeks" or Shavuot. It comes after Passover and serves as a book end to the celebratory season of Passover. In the Bible Shavuot is a holiday in which one brings the first fruits to the Temple and has a celebratory feast. Traditions surrounding the holiday developed and the holiday got a new focus. This makes sense since most Jews today are not living in agricultural societies. The new focus is on the Torah, God's Law. Some Jews participate in all night Torah study sessions, which I was inspired to do, but sadly it was a weeknight and so it wasn't doable. A second tradition is reading the Book of Ruth, which does tie to first fruits I suppose since there's a whole lot of gleaning in that book. Third, one is supposed to partake of dairy! I love dairy, but being lactose intolerant we celebrated dairy in a round about way.
We made soy cheesecake (which the husband has been asking for for months), and tofu manicotti. Our manicotti was not as pretty as that though. Finally, one is supposed to decorate the house with greenery and flowers. This we didn't do.
A more modern tradition for a Christian celebration of Pentecost is to have red foods. Some people have red velvet cake, and some people have strawberries! We went for the second route since they are much healthier and also on sale because of the bumper crop California had this year.
