Are Jews to stop celebrating their old holidays?

The full question:

I am not Jewish but I have a question about the Jewish faith. My mom says that since Christ has come and risen, there is no need for the Jews to celebrate any of their holidays, i.e. Passover, etc. I see her point (sort of), but even though Christ has come and all the old “laws” are now obsolete, so to speak, because of His fulfilment, are Jews to stop celebrating their old holidays?

I agree with your mom.  Jews are no longer required by God to keep the law given through Moses – which includes celebrating the feasts.

When Jesus was crucified, God tore the curtain into the most holy place in two from top to bottom. (Matthew 27:51)  From God’s point of view, it was now a new beginning – the old was passing away.  The way to approach God was now through Jesus. Hebrews 9:11-15:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent … he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.  …  Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance,

We read about the replacement of the first covenant with the new covenant in Hebrews 8:5-13:

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah …”.  In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

We read that Jesus is our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7).  The celebrating of the feasts under the old covenant, was actually a pointing forward to Jesus.  When Jesus was sacrificed, the types were no longer required.  Paul says of the Law of Moses in Colossians 2:14-17:

by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

So Christ did away with the law given through Moses, bringing a better way for God’s children.  If Jews want to keep the festivals, that is ok as long as they realise there is no longer a need to do so – as long as they realise that the only way now to approach and worship God is through Jesus Christ. Acts 4:11-12:

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Jews and non-Jews are saved by Jesus. Galatians 3:27-28:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.