High Sabbaths

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High Sabbaths (John 19:31) refer to the annual festivals recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. Rather than the weekly seventh day Sabbath, these days of the Festivals of Unleavened Bread or Passover (Pesach), Pentecost (Shavuot), Atonement (Yom Kippur), Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), and Tabernacles (Sukkoth) may fall on various other days of the week.

This phrase "high Sabbath" has been identified by Dr. Dani ben Gigi of Hebrewworld.com, former professor of Hebrew Language at Arizona State University, as meaning specifically "Shabbat haGadol", that is, the weekly Sabbath that comes before Passover each year. There is no reference in the Torah of the Jews, the first five books of Moses, or the Old Testament that calls the Feast Days as "high holy days". This is a modern practice that follows the example of Roman Catholicism which calls their special days, High Days.

The ten day period between the High Sabbaths of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are commonly referred to as the High Holy Days, or High Holidays.