Passover, Jewish Festival of Freedom, Observed April 5-13

The Jewish holiday of Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 5 and runs for eight days, through Thursday evening, April 13.

Within Israel, the holiday is observed for only seven days, through April 12. The discrepancy originates over 2,000 years ago, when Jews in exile from Israel struggled to synchronize their calendars with that of the Holy Land, and observed an extra holy day to be certain that they did not miss it.

The holiday itself is a celebration of freedom, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, as told in the Bible. On the first two nights of the holiday (and just the first in Israel), Jews gather for a special meal, the Seder (Order).

The Seder is a symbolic reenactment of the Exodus, with specific foods eaten to represent various different aspects of the journey. In between, participants read paragraphs from the Haggadah, the official Passover text.

One key paragraph reads: “In every generation upon generation, a person is required to regard himself as if he [personally] left Egypt.” Participants refer to the experience of the Exodus in the first person, not the third.

One food that is central to the holiday, in the Seder and the days that follow, is matzah, or unleavened bread. Jews refrain from eating — or owning — any leavened bread, or even products that may contain trace amounts.

Observant Jews also refrain from work on the first two days and the last two days of the holiday (in Israel, just the first and last day).

Passover is also one of the three major pilgrimage holidays in Judaism. The others are Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles).

There is a connection to the Christian holiday of Easter: the Last Supper of Jesus was a Seder, and provided the basis for the wine and unleavened bread of Communion.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.