In Israel, the grain harvest began at Passover with the barley harvest and ended at Shavuot with the wheat harvest. (Don't forget that Passover is more accurately called Pesach by the Jews, but I kept forgetting so I'll stick to Passover in this post.) Shavuot means “weeks”, representing the seven weeks mandated by God to count the time from the Passover to Shavuot. Shavuot is known as the Festival of First Fruits (because it was the time of the year that the first fruits were brought to the temple as a sacrifice) and Pentecost (because it occurred 50 days after Passover. pentecost = 50th day) although it's not related to the Christian version of Pentecost.
Shavuot is also known as Hag Matan Torateinu (the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah) because it celebrates the day the Israelites at Mount Sinai first received the Torah (a.k.a. the first five books of the Bible contain fundamental Jewish history and law), however, the connection between Shavuot and the Torah is not explicitly stated in the Bible. So while Passover celebrates the Jews freedom from earthly oppression, Shavuot celebrates freedom from spiritual oppression because of the guidance from God given in the Torah. This also means that the time from Passover to Shavuot, called the Counting of the Omer, is a time of spiritual preparation.
The interesting thing about Shavuot is that it doesn't have any detailed rules set forth by the Torah beyond the standard no work, prayer time, and feast. Over time the following traditions were incorporated:
- Reading the poem Akdamut (translated to “In Introduction to the Words”) on the first day complete with an all night study session on the Torah,
- Eating dairy products (many different theories attempt to explain why),
- and Reading the book of Ruth (the historical elements in the book relate to this harvest time),
If you procrastinate until the last minute to study for the Torah Test:
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