Lag BaOmer 2027

The dates

Lag BaOmer is the thirty-third day of the Omer count, 18 Iyar, the day on which the mourning customs of that period stop for twenty-four hours and everything opens up again. It is the night of the bonfires: children collect wood for weeks beforehand, whole neighbourhoods fill with smoke, and at Meron in the Galilee crowds gather around the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

It is a festive day with no biblical source and no restriction on work. It came into being inside a period of mourning, as a break in it, and over the centuries it has become one of the loudest and most popular days in the Jewish year.

A day inside a count

Lag BaOmer is not a festival in its own right but a point inside something longer. Forty-nine days are counted one by one between Passover and Shavuot, the counting of the Omer, and for many centuries those days have carried customs of mourning: no weddings, no haircuts, no celebrations.

The reason attached to them comes from the Talmud, which reports of Rabbi Akiva's students: "Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of students... and they all died in one period, because they did not treat one another with respect", with a further teaching added: "they all died between Passover and Shavuot" ¹. Which is to say, in exactly these days.

The tradition that the deaths stopped on the thirty-third day appears only centuries later. The earliest well-known mention of the day as one of rejoicing is startlingly brief: the Rema, in his gloss on the Shulchan Arukh, writes that in the lands of Ashkenaz people "cut their hair on the thirty-third day and increase somewhat in joy on it" ². Somewhat in joy: that is all of it. The bonfires, Meron and the crowds came afterwards.

The count this day sits inside

Lag BaOmer does not appear in the Torah. What appears there is the count itself: "And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering — the day after the sabbath — you shall count off seven weeks" ³. The “omer” was a measure of barley brought to the Temple at the start of the harvest, and from that day seven weeks were counted through to Shavuot.

So the origin is an agricultural calendar: seven weeks between the first barley and the wheat harvest, counted out loud so that nobody lost track. Everything else (the mourning, the break in the middle of it, the bonfires) was built later on top of that tally.

The name comes from the same place. In Hebrew, “lamed” is thirty and “gimel” is three; “lag” is simply thirty-three. Lag BaOmer means "the thirty-third of the Omer", and the day has never had any other name.

Bonfires, Meron and a first haircut

Bonfires. The custom most identified with the day, and in Israel practically a rite of childhood: gathering wood and pallets for weeks, guarding the pile against rival neighbourhoods, and lighting it on the night Lag BaOmer comes in. The usual explanation links the fire to the light Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is said to have left behind him.

Meron. Mount Meron in the Galilee holds the tomb attributed to Rabbi Shimon and his son. On the night of Lag BaOmer tens of thousands gather there for a great lighting, singing and dancing: one of the largest annual gatherings in Israel.

Chalakah: the first haircut. Three-year-old boys are traditionally brought to Meron for their first haircut, and many families wait specifically for Lag BaOmer. It is one of the most visible sights on the mountain that day.

Bows and arrows. Children have long gone out to the woods with bows. The reason given is that the bow recalls a tradition that no rainbow was seen in Rabbi Shimon's lifetime; his generation, the story goes, did not need the reminder.

What comes back. The mourning customs of the Omer lift on Lag BaOmer: haircuts, weddings and music all resume. It is one of the busiest wedding dates of the year.

Twelve years in a cave

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, around whom this whole day turns, is known above all for one story. According to the Talmud he said harsh things about Roman rule, a death sentence was passed on him, and he and his son Elazar fled and hid in a cave.

"A miracle occurred, and a carob tree and a spring of water were created for them" ⁴. Twelve years they sat there, buried in sand up to their necks, and studied. When they finally came out and saw people ploughing and sowing, they could not understand how anyone could be occupied with such things. The story goes on to say they were sent back into the cave for another year, and when they emerged the second time they had learned to look differently.

It is a story about a man cut off entirely from the world who then had to learn how to return to it. Perhaps it is not an accident that the day carrying his name is the day people go outdoors, light a fire in an open field and stand around it together.

An interruption, and why it is needed

What makes Lag BaOmer distinctive is not what it commemorates but where it sits. It falls inside a stretch of the year that is meant to be quiet and restrained, and it stops that stretch for a single day.

It is worth going back to the Talmud's own wording here. Rabbi Akiva's students did not die in a war or a famine; the reason given is that they failed to treat one another with respect. That is a pointed observation once you remember who their teacher was: Rabbi Akiva is the sage who called "love your neighbour as yourself" a great principle of the Torah. The period we count through, on this telling, marks a failure to learn that particular lesson from the man who taught it.

And in the middle of that period sits one day given over entirely to going outside: a fire in an open field, people around it, a whole neighbourhood awake at night. Even though the customs are far later than the story, it is hard not to read them as an answer to it.

Common questions about Lag BaOmer

When is Lag BaOmer?

On 18 Iyar (25/5/27), the thirty-third day of the Omer count. On the civil calendar it falls in May, usually around the middle of the month.

When are the bonfires lit?

On the night the day comes in: the evening following 17 Iyar. When Lag BaOmer falls on a Sunday it has become common in recent years to push the lighting to the evening at the end of the day itself, so that the preparations are not made on Shabbat.

How long does Lag BaOmer last?

One day. It is not a festival day and not a public holiday: schools and workplaces run as normal, however late the previous night ran.

What does "Lag" mean?

It is a number. The Hebrew letter “lamed” is thirty and “gimel” is three, so “lag” is thirty-three. Lag BaOmer is the thirty-third day of the Omer, and the day has no other name.

Why do weddings and haircuts resume on this day?

Because the mourning customs of the Omer period lift on it. Communities differ on the precise moment (some from the night before, some only from the morning), but in every custom Lag BaOmer is the turning point.

The Lag BaOmer date, Hebrew and civil side by side

The table at the top of this page shows Lag BaOmer as it actually falls: the Hebrew date, the matching civil date and the weekday, for the selected year and the years after it. You can see at a glance which evening the bonfires are lit on, and whether the day lands next to Shabbat.

Every date is computed from the Hebrew calendar as the page loads, so it holds for any year.

• Every festival of the year in one view: the annual holidays calendar
• The full printable calendar: home page
• The Hebrew month it falls in: Iyar

Related pages

• Printable calendar for May 2027
• The Hebrew month of Iyar 5787
• All the Jewish holidays of 2027
• Printable 2026 Jewish calendar with holidays