Some later rabbinic sources link the omer count to the Israelites' experience in the desert. According to these sources, at the time of the Exodus, Moses announced that 50 days later they would celebrate a religious ceremony at Mount Sinai. The populace was so excited by this that they counted the days until that ceremony took place. Later (according to the sources), when the Temple was destroyed and the omer offering ceased, the rabbis instituted omer counting as a remembrance of the counting up to Sinai.