Education Through Religious Festivals

As a means of education, an important place was filled by the feasts of Israel. In ordinary life the family was both a school and a church, the parents being the instructors in both secular and religious lines. But three times a year seasons were appointed for social exchange and worship, first at Shiloh and afterward at Jerusalem. Only the fathers and sons were required to be present, but none desired to forgo the opportunities of the feasts, hence, so far as possible, all the household were in attendance. With them, as sharers of their hospitality, were the stranger, the Levite, and the poor.TEd 28.5

The journey to Jerusalem, in the simple, patriarchal style, amidst the beauty of the springtime, the richness of midsummer, or the ripened glory of autumn, was a delight. With offerings of gratitude they came, from the elderly with white hair to the little child, to meet with God in His holy habitation. As they journeyed, the experiences of the past, the stories that both old and young still love, were recounted to the Hebrew children. The songs that had cheered Israel in their wilderness wandering were sung. God’s commandments were chanted, and, bound up with the blessed influences of nature and of kindly human association, they were forever fixed in the memory of many a child and youth.TEd 29.1

The ceremonies witnessed at Jerusalem in connection with the paschal service—the night assembly, the men with their girded loins, shoes on feet and staff in hand, the hasty meal, the lamb, the unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and in the solemn silence the rehearsal of the story of the sprinkled blood, the death-dealing angel, and the grand march from the land of bondage—all were of a nature to stir the imagination and impress the heart.TEd 29.2

The Feast of Tabernacles, or harvest festival, with its offerings from orchard and field, its week’s encampment in the leafy booths, its social reunions, the sacred memorial service, and the generous hospitality to God’s workers, the strangers, and the poor, uplifted all minds in gratitude to Him who had crowned the year with His goodness.TEd 29.3

By the devout in Israel, fully a month of every year was occupied in this way. It was a period free from care and labor, and almost wholly devoted, in the truest sense, to purposes of education.TEd 29.4