Shavuot Countdown Calendar

In Leviticus 23:15-16 we receive the instruction to count the days beginning with the day after the Sabbath during the feast of Unleavened Bread until Shavuot, which is 50 days:

Leviticus 23:15-16
15 ‘And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths.
16 ‘Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to יהוה.

Having a visual reminder of the count can be helpful and it also can be a way to engage children in counting the days. This can be as simple as having a calendar that one marks the days on. We have put together a tutorial on how one could make an activity of the counting of the days by making a small bag for each day which are hung on the wall.

To make the bags I bought approximately 2.5yd of unbleached cotton fabric and cut out circles. To make this easy I traced around a colander to make the circles.

I then cut the circles out using pinking shears.

My circles ended up being about 8.5″ in diameter, however, you might want to make them larger depending on what you intend to put in each bag.

I tied each bag with some blue and white twine.

I labelled them using cardboard tags, although one could write the numbers on the bags, embroider them, or glue numbers on them.

I divided the bags into each week’s worth and then strung them on lengths of twine which I attached to the wall with thumb tacks.

One could using ornament hooks or some sort of garment hooks to easily put them up and take them down.

Feel free to get creative with the idea and make your own version. What you decide to put in each one is up to you, but you could include candies, dried fruit, candied nuts, a scripture for each day, an activity for that day, or other small items your children enjoy. We decided to put our daily measure of morning coffee grounds into each one.

by Ashley McMahon