The outline of the ecclesiastical year was prefigured in the Old Law, while the synagogue furnished the fundamental elements in its festivals, the Sabbath in particular, and in the division of the year into weeks. This renders a glance at the religious year of the Jews necessary, for, apart from it, it is impossible to understand the essential character of the Christian year. The Jewish festivals in the time of Christ were instituted either in commemoration of events connected with the divine covenant, such as the Passover, or they were of an agrarian character or commemorated some national event, as the dedication of the Temple, Purim, Jom Kippar, etc. According to the dates of their origin they fall into two classes:— (_a_) The ancient festivals instituted by Moses: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, in the earlier part of the year; the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, in autumn, _i.e._ on the first, seventh, and fifteenth days of the month Tizri. (_b_) The more recent festivals instituted by the Synagogue, such as the Dedication of the Temple on the 25th Chisleu; Purim, or the Feast of Haman, on the 14th Adar. To these were added four fast days as days of national humiliation. Consequently, since the death of Christ took place on the first day of the feast of the Passover (15th Nisan), and since the Descent of the Holy Ghost followed on the day of Pentecost, the chief Jewish feasts served as the foundation of the Christian ecclesiastical year, and the Apostles could join with the Jews in their Passover celebration. Certainly the object of their feast was very different from that of the Jews, yet, outwardly there was no separation from the synagogue. 2. _Sunday and its Observance as a Day of Rest_ The Sabbath and the week of seven days, by their appointment in the ancient Law, formed already a necessary element of the ecclesiastical year and maintained their position in the Church. The division of the year into weeks is not specifically Jewish, but rather Semitic, since we find it in existence in ancient Babylon, though there a new week began with the first day of every month, and the first, seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the month were always days of rest.[2] This system of dividing time into weeks received a religious consecration among the Jews, inasmuch as the Sabbath rest was enjoined by the Law under the severest sanctions. All servile work of whatsoever kind must be laid aside on the Sabbath, according to the Jewish law. It was not even permitted to light a fire or prepare food. Important as was the place given to rest, it was, however, only one part, and that a subordinate part of the Sabbath festival. The most important part was the performance of the acts of divine worship God enjoined upon the people, that is to say the sacrifice of a holocaust, consisting of two yearling lambs, along with “flour tempered with oil and the libations.”[3]