Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.
10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee Deuteronomy 16:9,10
The Actual Count:
Each day say "This is day __ of the __week in counting 50 days from First Fruits until Shavuot." (i.e. on FirstFruits you would say, This is day one of the first week in counting 50 days from First Fruits until Shavuot). Use whatever wording you prefer to reflect what it is you are counting. By doing this each day, you will have counted the omer!
Counting the Omer From FirstFruits to Shavuot
Ellen Kavanaugh
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Levitcus 23:9-14
First Fruits is a day of waving sheafs, called Yom Hanafat H'omer, the day when sheaves of barley were brought to the Temple for a wave-offering. First Fruits falls on the first Sunday (morrow after the Sabbath) following Pesakh (Passover) and begins a 50 day / seven sabbath count which we refer to as "Counting the Omer." The count ends with the arrival of Shavuot (Pentecost) which will fall on June 4, 2006 May 27, 2007.
And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. Leviticus 23:15,16
This wave offering (First Fruits) begins the first day of counting the omer -- so count First Fruits as Day 1. We are commanded to make this count of 49 days / seven weeks -- this is why Shavuot is known as the "Festival of Weeks.