Lag BaOmer et les feux de joie ל"ג בעומר און די פייערן

Lag BaOmer falls on the 33rd day of the Omer count, 18 Iyar. According to the Rishonim, the plague among Rabbi Akiva's students ended on this day, and for many communities the Omer's mourning customs conclude then — so weddings and haircuts take place.

It is also the hillula (yahrzeit) of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Following a late-medieval tradition, pilgrims travel to his tomb in Meron, where bonfires are lit amid singing and dancing; by the 18th–19th centuries travelers described the Meron hillula, with bonfires and children's first haircuts, as a mass event. Today Chasidic rebbes light bonfires for their followers, children go out with bows and arrows, and "Bar Yochai" is sung late into the night.