Lag ba’omer is a minor Jewish festival that falls on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar (approximately May). It is the 33rd day of the omer, the 49 days that separate the festivals of Passover and Shavuot. Unlike most Jewish holidays, which have Biblical bases, Lag ba’omer has been observed for only about 1,000 years. Lag ba’omer is also called the Scholars Festival because it commemorates the end of a violent epidemic that raged among the students of Rabbi Akiva ben Joseph in Palestine during the early A.D. 100’s.
