9 things you didn't know about Shavuot

Along with Passover and Sukkot, Shavuot is one of the three major Jewish pilgrimage festivals. It falls out precisely 49 days after the second day of Passover, a period of time known as the Omer, and marks the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai.

Here are nine things you might not know about this springtime holiday.

Shavuot is the holiday of Jewish paper-cutting

Shavuot is a springtime festival, a period when the earth is coming into full bloom (in the northern hemisphere anyway). One Jewish legend recounts that Mount Sinai burst into flower with the giving of the Torah. In...