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What is Passover?

How we celebrate Passover

Passover - or Pesach in Hebrew - is one of the most important dates in the Jewish calendar.

It's a spring festival and celebrations last for seven or eight days depending on where you live.

During the celebration, Jewish people remember an important story in their history, when they were freed from slavery in Egypt.

To celebrate, special food is eaten with family and friends.

What is the story of Passover?

A sketch illustration of Moses and Pharaoh. Pharaoh looks angry.Getty Images

Over 3,000 years ago, a group of Jewish people called the Israelites were being kept in slavery by the ruler of Egypt, Pharaoh.

A man called Moses went to see Pharaoh many times to ask him to let them go but Pharaoh refused.

Moses told him that if he did not release them, God would send plagues to Egypt. Pharaoh did not listen, and so the plagues came.

There were ten plagues in total. The River Nile turned to blood, frogs covered the land and there were insect infestations, but Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go.

A sketch of two people and Pharaoh looking into the River Nile where there is a trail of blood.Getty Images

The final plague was the death of every first-born child.

To stop this from happening, God told Moses to tell the Israelites to paint their doorposts with blood from lambs killed in sacrifice.

By doing this, the angel of death would know that Jewish people lived there and would pass over their home and not harm their first-born child.

This is where the name Passover comes from.

An illustraton shows a man marking a doorway with bloodGetty Images

In the final plague, Pharaoh's own son was killed. He summoned Moses and told him to take the Israelites out of Egypt immediately.

After more than 200 years of slavery, the Jewish people were free.

How is it celebrated?

A Passover Seder plate with Charoset, Maror or Bitter Herbs, Karpas, Zeroah or Lamb Shank, Beitza or Roasted Egg, and MatzohGetty Images

For Jewish people, Passover is a big celebration of freedom and life.

On the first evening, friends and family come together to eat a meal and have a special service called a Seder.

There are six items on a Seder plate which all represent different parts of the Passover story.

  • A lamb bone - this represents the lamb that was sacrificed for the Israelites

  • A roasted egg - this represents mourning, and the Israelites' determination when they were going through such a difficult time, as the cooked egg is hard

  • A green vegetable to dip in salt water - the green vegetable is a reference to new life, while the salt water symbolises the Israelite slaves' tears

  • Bitter herbs, often horseradish - this symbolises the bitter suffering that the Israelites had to go through

  • Charoset (a paste of chopped apples, walnuts and wine) - this is supposed to represent the material used by the Israelites to make bricks while they were working as slaves

A girl who is blurred by the camera holds a matzah with a piece bitten off to the camera. Getty Images

Also on the table is a special kind of flatbread called matzah, because during Passover Jewish people can't eat foods that have risen - known as chametz.

The matzah is a symbol of when the Israelites had to flee Egypt in such a hurry that their bread did not have time to rise.

This is also why Jewish people clean their houses very carefully before Passover, to get rid of any crumbs of chametz.

Families also read the Haggadah - a book that tells the Passover story - with songs and blessings.