Shavuot, a Jewish Tradition

Shavuot is a Jewish holy day that marks the beginning of the harvest ("Bikkurim" or the collection and offering of "The First Fruits" to the Temple in Jerusalem) and also the reception of the Torah, with the 10 Commandments, given to Moses at Mount Sinai, 7 weeks after the departure from Egypt in Passover (Shavuot means "Festival of the Weeks" in Hebrew).  So, originally, Shavuot had an agricultural origin, which is kept in the tradition of decorating the house with greenery and flowers, or having a pic-nic in the woods or in your garden.  Later, when the Jewish people became more learned, some rabbis added to the festivity the practice of an all-nighter, "Tikkun", which involves staying awake all night and reading the Torah (the 10 Commandments, Ruth's or Ezekiel's books etc), having social debates about Arts & Culture etc. In 2020, Shavuot is celebrated from sunset May 28th to nightfall May 30th.  If you want to know more about Shavuot, you can read this article by Chabad.org. These texts are suitable for B2 students.

Food is an important part of the celebration too.  Ashkenazi Jews like to eat dairy products, like ice-cream, cheesecake or drink some milk, whereas Sephardic Jews prefer to eat a large meat meal, or the "Bread of the 7 Heavens" which you can see in the picture below right and you can bake by following this recipe in Spanish from eSefarad.com.  And kids like to bake aleph-bet shaped cookies.  Below, you can watch a short video by "BimBam", which has subtitles, but it is narrated at a fast speed and with several Hebrew words,  so it is more suitable for C1 level.

The Christian celebrations of Pentecost and Witsun in the Church of England are closely related to the Shavuot tradition, as you can read on this Wikipedia link.

I would like to thank A. C. Sefarad Aragón for their kind help to write this entry.