Passover (Pesach)

Passover remembers the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, on the fifteenth of Nisan, in March or April. It lasts seven days in Israel and eight in the diaspora. The home is cleaned of leavened food (chametz), matzah (unleavened bread) is eaten, and on the first night (and the second, outside Israel) the family holds the Seder, a meal that follows the Haggadah, the telling of the story, with four cups of wine, bitter herbs and symbolic foods on the Seder plate.

The greeting is "Chag Pesach sameach", a happy Passover.

Dates for the next ten years

Questions people ask

Jewish holidays begin at sundown on the evening before the date shown. Dates follow the standard Hebrew calendar; communities outside Israel keep a second day of several festivals. Customs differ between Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and other communities, and this is not a ruling: ask your rabbi.

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