Shavuot
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Shavuot (שבועות) is the Jewish Feast of Weeks. The name refers to the seven weeks after Passover that are ended at Shavuot. The traditional Greek name for the feast, adopted by Hellenized Jews in the centuries before the Common Era, is Pentecost (Πεντηκοστη), meaning fiftieth. Shavuot falls on 6 Sivan each year, which makes it fall in late May or early June in the Gregorian calendar.
Originally, Shavuot was a harvest festival, marking the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. However, it is mostly associated today with the giving of the Torah to Moses. The Ten Commandments are read in synagogue alongside the Book of Ruth: the latter suggesting a connexion with harvest time. Young children, traditionally, begin Hebrew School at Shavuot, and synagogues are decorated with greenery. Milk and dairy products are usually taken this day, to symbolize the richness of the Torah.
