LAG B’OMER is a happy holiday in our Jewish calendar, marked by outings to the countryside, games (often with bows and arrows), sports and campfires.  Although we are not sure of its origin, the Talmud reports that Lag B’omer was the day in which a plague that befell the students of Rabbi Akiba abated. This cryptic statement may reflect a Jewish victory during the Bar Kochba rebellion against the Romans in Eretz Yisrael in 135 C.E.

LAG B’OMER also has romantic associations - it is one of the few days during the period between Pesach and Shavu’ot (a time when marriages are generally not celebrated) that weddings are performed, and concerts are held.

The first word of the holiday’s name, Lag, is simply a combination of two Hebrew letters, lamed (which stands for the number thirty) and gimmel (which stands for the number three). Lag B’omer is so named because it falls on the thirty-third day of the counting of the Omer.