-Thomas J. Peters
“Three times a year you shall celebrate for Me.”
Then we get the details of what these celebrations are:
The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag Hamatzot), what we commonly refer to as Pesach (Passover), commemorating our Exodus from the bondage of Egypt.
The Feast of the Harvest, what we know as Shavuot, falls in the summer when the first fruits and crops are harvested.
The Feast of the Ingathering, what we know as Sukkot, occurs in the autumn, the end of the agricultural year when all of the produce is gathered from the fields.
The Bechor Shor on Exodus 23:14 examines why God wants us to celebrate at these times and specifically why those celebrations should be for Him. He explains that these three periods of the year are times of particular joy and that God wants to be part of our joy and for us to include Him in our festivities.