Feast of Trumpets

This is a cool sidebar story to the wedding that I've been meaning to tell, but it's complicated and I'm no biblical scholar, so I've held off...but today I'm going to go ahead and take a stab at it because I think it's really awesome and a great bit of history.

I may have comprimised on a church wedding, but I wasn't comprimising on the time of year of the wedding! Most Catholic engagements (so I hear) are anywhere from 6 months to a year long. Because of our living and personal situations that wasn't going to work and simply because I'm more happy in the sun (cue Ben Harper), six months would put us right around Christmas and a year...well, that just wasn't in the plan.

To make a long story short, a September wedding was okayed by the priest and there were 3 weekends available - the 12th, 19th, and 25th. The 12th wouldn't work as I already knew a great friend who wouldn't be able to make it, and why wait until the 25th if the 19th were open? Plus, the 19th is my parents' anniversary - their 33rd (I think ::oops::). So we picked the 19th.

Meanwhile, since January I've been doing a study to read the Bible in one year. One of many funny vignets from my chaplaincy has to do with a patient requesting a certain passage regarding a certain topic and me trying in vain to flip through 1000 pages and ending up reading from one of the most theologically complicated scriptures in the whole Bible. So, I joined a study and have really enjoyed it.

Part of what is making it so enjoyable is that the perspective is very Jewish and a lot of focus is on a Jewish interpretation - after all neither the writers of the Bible, nor Jesus, were Christian. One particular topic I've found interesting are the seven feasts of the Old Testament people. It is believed that Jesus' life fulfilled 4 of these feasts literally. One of the ones that has not been literally fulfilled is called The Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah. In 2009, that feast day falls on September 19th. So, I've tried to learn a little about this feast!

Rosh Ha-Shanah, pronounced rohsh hah SHAH nah or pronounced rohsh hah shah NAH, is the Jewish New Year celebration. The Hebrew words Rosh Ha-Shanah (which are also written Rosh Hashanah) mean Beginning of the Year. During this solemn religious festival, Jews pray for God's forgiveness, for a good year, and for long life. Rosh Ha-Shanah usually begins in September, on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, and lasts two days. Some Reform Jews celebrate it for one day.

Rosh Ha-Shanah begins the Ten Days of Penitence, which end on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Jews believe Rosh Ha-Shanah is the beginning of God's annual judgment of humanity. At that time, God decides who will continue to live and who will die during the coming year. (http://www.annieshomepage.com/trumpets.html)

So neat! The day that our new adventure starts, matches up with the history of the Jewish people...love it! One website I found even mentioned the theory among some scholars that Jesus Christ was born on this day (the 1st of Tishri). Christians refer to this day not as Rosh Hashanah but as the Feast of Trumpets, and I found this great quote:

God does not do things in vain, or without purpose. The Old Testament Holy Days were not just some sort of Divine make-work project to keep the Israelites busy while they were out wandering in the desert. All of the Old Testament Holy Days (Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of Weeks, The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, The Festival of Tabernacles and the Last Day) were, and continue to be, living symbols of the stages of God's Plan of Salvation for ALLhumanity.

I'm not really a church person but I love true Christianity so passionately and I am really starting to see how deeply it's rooted in Hebrew tradition. How exciting that I am able to see that played out in our day. Our "feast" starts on the 18th and runs through the 20th as does this particular one, in this particular year. During some feast day ceremonies prayers are said next to moving bodies of water - our prayers for our celebration will be held next to the Gulf of Mexico :)

This has been such an encouragement to me, especially as we get closer to the wedding and it seems like more and more Catholic/non-Catholic issues arise. It's been hard not to take it all personally, and the last few days as I've been researching this, and considering sharing some of the research, I realized that the circumstances around me are not as big as they sometimes feel. There is a bigger picture for all of us! Yay!