1. On which holy-day were the Israelites told to give their animals a rest?
See Deuteronomy 5:4 – When God gave the Israelites his commands about the Sabbath, He told them the following:-“but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.”

2. On which holy-day do Jews today use football rattles?
See the Book of Esther 9:18-19 – After Mordecai and Queen Esther saved the Jews from the threat of destruction by Haman, a great annual festival was instituted. To this day when the book of Esther is read at the festival of Purim, football rattles are used to drown out the name Haman whenever it is read.

3. What animal had to be kept in a Jewish house for three and a half days before the Passover?
See Exodus 12:1-6 – The Passover lamb was brought into the house as God commanded and kept for three and a half days before it would be killed for the sacrifice. This would bring home to the Israelites how much they needed to repent of their sins and how great God’s mercy was in accepting the death of the lamb instead of their deaths. The lamb pointed forward to the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God.

4. What was to happen to the first sheaf of the harvest?
See Leviticus 23:10-11 – The Israelites were always to remember how much God had given them, so the firstfruits of the harvest were to be dedicated to God.

5. Who was lost by his parents at one of the feasts of the Jews?
See Luke 2:41-49 – When he was 12 the young Jesus was taken up to Jerusalem for the first time to a festival, – possibly the Passover. On the way back Joseph and Mary realised Jesus was missing and went back to look for him; after three days they found him in the Temple, -“ his Father’s house.”