Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 13, p. 229. SHAVU’OT, or Pentecost, is the Jewish festival that falls on the sixth day of the month of Sivan (and also on the seventh day, outside Israel). In the Pentateuch (Ex. 34:22, Dt. 16:10) the festival is called Shavu’ot (“weeks”) because it falls…