We are currently entering the holiday season in the UK and June has been unusually warm and sunny here. Holidays are generally associated with rest from work, an opportunity to visit somewhere different and time spent with families and friends. These days, travel is easy and so we can visit countries abroad with relative ease or we can explore the many beautiful parts of the UK, taking in the glorious scenery of beaches and the coast or the greenery of hills and glens. Most of us really enjoy the break from routine which holidays afford and value the time away from the daily grind.
Religious festivals provided Jews with an opportunity to rest from work and to spend time with families and friends, but there was also a pronounced emphasis on gathering to worship God and to remember all He has done for us. As the historical psalms have shown us, there is a constant need to remember God and His wonderful deeds (see Ps 78:7, 35), and the festivals provided this planned opportunity to take time out of our everyday routines:
- to focus attention on God
- to recall God’s work in history
- to rest/ refrain from work (since even God rested on the seventh day, rest is a definite requirement for successful, obedient living)
- to keep historical tradition alive
- to foster a sense of community and belonging
- to ensure regular reflection and celebration
Just as we look forward to an annual summer holiday, we need to take time out of our busy schedules to rest and to worship God. The weekly provision of this was the Sabbath (Ex 20:10); the festivals were the opportunity to take a week long break to gather with God’s people to worship and celebrate. Pilgrimages still feature in many Christian traditions (with journeys to special places such as Lourdes or Walsingham or the Holy Island, often places associated with the miraculous intervention of God in the past) and many Christian festivals (Spring Harvest, the One Event, the Keswick Convention, Greenbelt, the Big Church Day Out) also provide the opportunity to combine holidays with holy days. Wherever we go this summer or wherever we are, even if we have no opportunity to go away, we can still join with God’s people in worship and celebration.