Passover is a predominately Jewish holiday celebrating when God spared the Israelites by killing the first born sons of Egypt. The day is followed by seven days of feasting commemorating the Exodus from Egypt and the freeing from slavery of the Israelites. Passover starts on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar and occurs on the night of the first full moon following the vernal equinox. This was based on it being the beginning of the harvest season in Israel, but this aspect of the holiday has become overshadowed by the observance of the Exodus from Egypt.

Passover or Pesach as it is known in Hebrew is probably the most widely observed holidays in the Jewish religion. Passover refers to the fact that God passed over the houses of the Jews when he slayed the firstborn of Egypt. Pesach was also the name of the lamb that was sacrificed in the Temple on this holy day. Passover ties in to the Christian Bible since the Last Supper was supposedly a Passover feast, or Seder.

According to the Bible, in the story of the Exodus, God visited ten plagues on the Egyptians before the Pharaoh would free the Israelite slaves. The tenth plague was the killing of firstborn sons. The Israelites were told to mark their doors with the blood of the lamb, so that God would know to pass over those homes. The story further states that when the Pharaoh freed them, the Israelites left Egypt in such a hurry that they couldn’t wait for their bread to rise. This gave way to the tradition of eating only unleavened bread during Passover.

The unleavened bread that is traditionally eaten during Passover is called matzah, and is made simply of flour and water. To truly follow the celebration of Passover, one must remove not only any leaven, or chametz, from the home, but any derivative of it, such as animals fed with grain, and any residue of it left in the home. To adequately prepare your home for Passover requires the massive undertaking of scrubbing every cooking surface and utensil in the home to ensure no sign of leaven is left in the home. It can take several weeks of preparation to accomplish completely and correctly. The task is such that you must use a toothbrush or other tool to clean every crack and crevice that may have come in contact with unleavened bread. Finally, a search of the entire house must be made to ensure compliance and any remaining chametz must be burned. This tradition is thought by many to be the origin of the customary spring cleaning observed by many people.

Passover lasts for seven days or in some cases eight days, with the first and the last observed as legal holidays and forbidding any work being done. Work is allowed during the middle of the celebration. Also on the first night, a Jew is required to recount the story of Exodus during the Passover Seder.