Firstfruits is the first one of three harvest feast of the year. Here it is about barley. The second havest feast is Shavuot and the third one Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles.

Chag HaBirkurim is part of Pesach. It is held during the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, one day after Shabbat, which is always the first day of the week, a Sunday. The first grain of barley was given to God and the priest was to offer it to the Lord as a swing offering:

"He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath," Leviticus 23:11. Until then, no bread was to be eaten from the first crop.

"'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks," Leviticus 23:15. This is the so-called Omer-counting (Omer is the Hebrew word for sheaf), e.g. 50 days. It begins on Chag HaBirkurim and goes up to Shavuot (Pentecost), which is therefore called "Feast of Weeks".

Inside the Garden Tomb

It was this feast, Chag HaBikurim, when the women found Yeshua's grave empty - He has risen on this feat of Firstfruits! These Firstfruits are a foreshadow to Yeshua who was the firstborn, "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1. Corinthians 15:20; see also Romans 8:29). Thus the Feast of the Firstfruits is fulfilled in Yeshua's resurrection! You can read about how the name "Easter" came about at the end of our Pesach-article. And read here

about why the Christian feasts don't correspond with the biblical feasts anymore.