How much do you know about the holiday of Passover? Maybe you’ve heard about Passover from a friend, seen it on a calendar, or noticed someone eating different food during this time.
Passover (or “Pesach” in Hebrew, pronounced PAY-sock) is one of the most significant and widely observed holidays in Judaism. Jewish families celebrate the weeklong festival with important rituals to commemorate their ancestors’ freedom from slavery.
To help you and your kids learn how and why Passover is celebrated, we put together a holiday guide for families:
When is Passover?
Passover begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for 8 days. This typically corresponds to late March or April.
The Jewish calendar is a lunarsolar calendar, which means it is based on the phases of the moon. The modern calendar used by most countries of the world, the Gregorian calendar, is a solar calendar, meaning it is based on Earth’s rotation around the Sun.
Because the date of Passover is according to the Jewish calendar, its date on the Gregorian calendar changes yearly.
In 2026, Passover begins at sundown on April 1 and ends after nightfall on April 9.
What does Passover celebrate?
Passover remembers a time more than 3,000 years ago when Jews were slaves in ancient Egypt. In the story of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible, a leader named Moses receives a command from God to go to Egypt to free his people.
When the pharaoh (the leader of Egypt) refuses to free the Jews, God unleashes 10 plagues on the Egyptians. The last plague is an avenging angel to kill every Egyptian’s firstborn son. Jewish families marked their doorframes with lamb’s blood so the angel would know to “pass over” their households.
Afraid of further punishment, the Egyptian people convince the pharaoh to free the Jewish slaves. Moses quickly leads them out of Egypt, but afterward, the pharaoh changes his mind and sends his soldiers after them.
As the Egyptian army approaches Moses and the former slaves at the edge of the Red Sea, God causes the sea to part, allowing Moses and the Jews to safely cross and escape from the Egyptians before the sea closes.
How is Passover celebrated?
Matzo
Before Passover begins, Jewish families remove all leavened food products, which are called chametz, from their home. Leavened food products are baked goods that have been made light and airy with a raising agent like yeast.
For the duration of Passover, Jews eat a flatbread called matzo (or sometimes matzah) instead of risen bread.
According to tradition, the Jews fleeing Egypt left so quickly that the bread they were making to take with them didn’t have time to rise.
When making matzo, the flour and water must be mixed very quickly to prevent fermentation, and it must be pricked during the baking process so it won’t puff or rise. Then, the matzo is left to harden and crisp, or it gets pulverized into a meal.
Matzo serves as the base for many Passover meals. One of the most commonly served foods during this time is matzo ball soup, often referred to as “Jewish penicillin” because it’s a comfort food used when sick, similar to chicken noodle soup.
Seder
On the first two nights of Passover, Jewish families and friends gather for a feast known as a Seder (pronounced SAY-dur), which means “order” in Hebrew. It’s called that because it follows a specific sequence of readings, rituals, prayers, and songs.
During the meal, families read the story of the exodus from Egypt aloud from a special text called the Haggadah (Hebrew for “telling”) and perform various rituals corresponding to the story.
A special Seder plate contains six foods that symbolizes different parts of the story:
- Maror (bitter herb) — the bitter hardship of slavery
- Chazeret (second bitter herb) — the bitter hardship of slavery
- Charoset (sweet paste) — the bricks that the Jewish slaves in Egypt used for building
- Karpas (vegetable) — the tears shed by the slaves in Egypt
- Z’roa (lamb bone) — the lamb sacrificed for the “pass over” before the Jews escaped Egypt
- Beitzah (hardboiled egg) — the mourning of the past and the celebration of a new life of freedom
Kids play an important role in the Seder and take part in many of its customs. For example, at one point during the meal, the youngest child recites the Four Questions, which ask what makes this night special compared to other nights.
Yom Tov
Yom tov (pronounced yohm tove) is a Hebrew phrase that means “good day” and refers to major Jewish holidays with specific requirements.
Though there are 8 days of Passover, only the first two days and last two days are yom tov. These days are especially significant, and Jews are not supposed to work during this time.
Passover is a meaningful time for Jewish families to remember the story of freedom, gather with loved ones, and celebrate important traditions. We hope this guide has helped you appreciate the celebration and reflect on its message of hope and freedom.
Pesach Sameach! Happy Passover!
