Shavuot 2024 Date (June 12th), Things Not to Do

Shavuot, or Shavuos, is a religious Jewish festival celebrating the date of the giving of the Torah from God to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. It also marks the end of the spring barley harvest and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. Shavuot is also called 'the Festival of Reaping' in the Bible.

Shavuot is celebrated on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, usually falling between late May and early June on the Gregorian calendar. Shavuot 2024 is from the evening of June 11th to the evening of June 12th in Israel and from the evening of June 11th to the evening of June 13th in the Jewish diaspora (outside Israel).

Continue to read why Shavuot starts from an evening and why the festival is celebrated on different days in different places.

Things Not to Do During Shavuot

As any religious or cultural celebration, Shavuot has unique customs that need to be respected. Here is a list of things you should avoid doing on Shavuot:

• Working: Engaging in work or labor is generally prohibited on Shavuot, much like during Shabbat and other Jewish festivals.
• Driving or using electronic devices: As with Shabbat, use of electronic devices and driving should be refrained from during the holiday, as these activities are considered forms of creative work.
• Not observing the customs: While they are not explicitly forbidden, failing to partake in Shavuot customs such as studying Torah, eating dairy foods, and attending synagogue may deprive you of fully engaging with this important religious celebration.
• Ignoring holiday candle lighting: Lighting candles on Shavuot and reciting the appropriate blessings are essential aspects of celebration. Be sure to uphold this custom as part of your observance.

Why does the celebration of Shavuot start with an evening?

Happy young Israeli women throwing wheat to the air on Shavuot.

In the Jewish calendar, days start from nightfall (sunset) and ends at nightfall on the next day. This comes from the account of creation in Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day… And there was evening, and there was morning — the second day…" and so on.

You'll find that many traditional Jewish festivals start from sundown. For example, Passover 2024 (celebrating the Israelites' escape from slavery in ancient Egypt) runs from the evening of April 22nd to the evening of April 30th.

Suggested reading: Shavuot Greetings: Can You Say 'Happy Shavuot'?

Why is Shavuot celebrated for 2 days outside Israel?

The main reason is uncertainty about the date of the new lunar month in areas outside Israel.

The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar system calculated according to the movement of the moon. A new month begins from the arrival of the new moon. The moon's orbit is around 29½ days, thus sometimes a new lunar month starts after 29 days and sometimes after 30 days.

In ancient times, there was insufficient astronomy to anticipate a new moon's arrival. It depended on a witness's sighting and sworn testimony in the temple in Jerusalem. After that a new month would be proclaimed, and the message would be delivered to other Jewish communities by horse and rider. It took a long time for Jews outside Israel to get the message, and they sometimes took another day to start a new month.

In order to celebrate Shavuot on the same day as in Israel, the diasporic Jewish people chose to observe it for two days. Today, though the new lunar month date is known exactly based on modern astronomy, the two-day celebration is kept internationally in order to respect the tradition.

Another saying is that "the light of the festival" is revealed in all Jewish communities, but less outside Israel, thus 2 days are needed to absorb the "light" (festive spirit).

How is Shavuot celebrated traditionally?

Shavuot is celebrated by all Jews all over the world, especially in Israel. As the festival commemorates both the receiving of the Torah and the spring harvest, its celebrations relate to both.

1. No Work

Little girl with basket of the first fruits during Shavuot in Israel.

Traditional requires no work during Shavuot. It's a time to study the Torah and reflect on the meaning behind the Ten Commandments.

In Biblical times, Shavuot was one of the three pilgrimage festivals when Jewish men would leave work and go to Jerusalem. They offered their first harvest fruits/grains in the Temple of Jerusalem to thank God for protection and the gift of food.

If you visit Israel during Shavuot, you might find many sights and restaurants being closed for 1–2 days. But instead, you could take in the festivities, parades, parties, and scenes of children with garlands on their heads and stores full of spring fruits.

2. Staying Up All Night Studying the Torah

Jewish People Read Torah during Shavuot.

This tradition is related to the story that on the day when the Jews were supposed to receive the Torah from God on Mount Sinai, they overslept. Moses had to wake them up and drag them to the mountain. In order to fix this problem and show respect, the custom of staying up all night learning the Torah (especially the Ten Commandments) is kept.

In ancient times, Jewish men would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to hear the Torah read. Today, instead of going to Jerusalem, most Jewish people go to a local synagogue to hear the reading of the Torah.

In Jerusalem, after finishing their Torah learning at sunrise, tens of thousands of people go to pray in front of the Western Wall.

People praying in front of the Wailing Wall, Jerusalem, Israel

In areas outside Israel, besides studying the Torah, many Jews read the book of Ruth on the second day of Shavuot at morning services. It's said that King David, Ruth's descendant who founded the Judaean dynasty and united all the tribes of Israel under a single monarch, was born and died on Shavuot. In addition, the themes of the Book of Ruth are similar to that of the Torah: loving, giving, kindness, and selflessness.

3. Eating Dairy Foods Like Milk and Cheese

A plate of cheese Bourekas during Shavuot

There are several stories about why dairy is eaten during Shavuot.

Story 1: The ancestors of Israelites were said to be pure and innocent like new-born babies when receiving the Torah from God. As milk is the food for babies, eating dairy food today is said to keep the heart pure like a new-born baby.

Story 2: Passover was the day when Israelites were rescued from Egyptian slavery. In Exodus, it is written: "And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into … a land flowing with milk and honey." Shavuot, on the 50th day after Passover, was the day when the Israelites were given the Torah, and following the commandments therein was God's precondition for receiving blessing in the land of Israel. Represented by milk and honey, Israel is a country providing Jewish people with fullness of blessing. Thus, milk and honey became traditional food for Shavuot as well as some other traditional festivals in Israel.

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A plate of cheese Bourekas during Shavuot.

Dairy foods are not cooked or eaten together with meat products, as an extreme version of this is explicitly forbidden in the Torah: "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk". Another saying is that milk stands for life while meat refers to death, and "life" and "death" must not be mixed together. Like on many other Jewish festivals, there are two meals on Shavuot. Milk is usually part of the day meal, while meat is usually reserved for the night meal.

4. Decorating Homes and Synagogues with Flowers and Fruit

When the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, they saw flowers blossoming all over the mountain. Today, Jewish people decorate their homes and synagogues with flowers to commemorate the scene at the time of receiving the Torah.

Trees are usually not used, as there is a curse in the Torah associated with being hung on wood (— the forerunner to the curse borne on Christ's cross in Christian belief).

Besides flowers, fruits are also displayed everywhere during the festival as Shavuot is also a harvest festival.

5. Taking a Mountain Hike

Before receiving the Torah, it took Moses and the Israelites several weeks to trek to Mount Sinai from Egypt. A mountain hike is taken by some Jews in honor of this journey and Moses' ascents of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah.

Dates for Shavuot 2024, 2025...