Shavuot has been known as Chag HaShavuot (Festival of the Weeks) or Chag HaKatsir (Festival of the Harvest) or Chag HaBikkurim (Festival of the First Fruits). It is one of the shalosh regalim, the three main pilgrimage festivals. It comes at the end of the seven-week cycle of the Omer, which begins on the second day of Pesach.

The Festival of Shavuot is somewhat unusual. Not only does it not occur on a specific date, but there is no real explanation given in Torah as to the meaning of the day, nor how it is to be observed ritually. In Biblical times, the period of Counting the Omer marked the transition from the very first grain crop of barley in early spring at Pesach to the beginning of the summer grain harvest of wheat at Shavuot. Bringing the first fruits of the year to the Temple in Jerusalem was a special event. Thousands of people would make the pilgrimage. Those who came from nearby villages brought fresh fruit, while those who came from far and remote places would bring dried fruit, olive oil from the previous year, and honey from dates ripened during the past year.

These agricultural roots of Shavuot would have been acceptable for the agricultural society of ancient Israel, but were not sufficient explanation for a holiday for Jews once they were outside the Land of Israel, where farming was on a different cycle and there was no Temple to which one could bring the seasonal offerings. In exile, Jews were left with an annual festival that had no apparent meaning.

The meaning of Shavuot became apparent to the sages after they considered the relationship of Shavuot with Pesach and Sukkot all of which are are Biblically commanded festivals. All have an agricultural connection, assigned to a specific harvest season. But Pesach and Sukkot have historical associations as well. Pesach commemorates the Exodus and the liberation from Egyptian bondage, while Sukkot and the dwelling in the Sukkah recall the Israelite's experience while wandering in the wilderness for forty years. So, they assumed, Shavuot must fit into this pattern as well.

Their reasoning was that, fifty days after leaving Egypt and before they set out to wander in the desert, the Israelites were encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai, awaiting the revelation of God's teachings. Hence, in this historical context, Shavuot naturally became associated with an extraordinary and significant event - the revelation of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. As Shavuot had no historical event associated with it in the Torah, and the event of Revelation had no holiday to mark it, it fitted the pattern perfectly.