Passover

🎉 🇮🇱 Israel • April 2, 2026

Days off: 7 days • Falls on Thursday

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Passover — holiday, Israel (April 2, 2026)

Passover Description

Pesach, the seven-day festival commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. In the weeks leading up to the holiday, Israelis undertake a massive national spring cleaning to remove all chametz (leavened products) from homes. The centerpiece is the Seder night, when families and communities gather to retell the Exodus story through the Haggadah, eat matzah and maror (bitter herbs), drink four cups of wine, and sing traditional songs. Supermarkets cover entire aisles of chametz products, and matzah becomes ubiquitous. Government offices, banks, and most businesses close for the first and last days, with intermediate days (Chol HaMoed) seeing widespread vacation travel to national parks and beaches.

📜 History & Origins

Passover (Pesach) commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, traditionally dated to roughly 1300 BCE, when Moses led the Israelites out of bondage after ten plagues struck Egypt. The name means 'passing over,' referring to the final plague, in which Israelite homes were 'passed over' by the Angel of Death. The Torah fixes it on 15 Nisan as one of the three pilgrimage festivals, and the Last Supper described in the New Testament was a Passover Seder. In 2026 it begins on the evening of April 1.

🎉 How It's Celebrated

Before the holiday, families perform a thorough spring cleaning to rid their homes of every crumb of chametz (leavened grain), and a final search (bedikat chametz) is conducted by candlelight the night before. On the first one or two nights, the Seder is held: family and guests read the Haggadah, drink four cups of wine, eat matzah and maror (bitter herbs), and re-enact the Exodus through symbolic foods placed on the Seder plate. During the seven days, no leavened food is eaten — only matzah — and restaurants and supermarkets sell only kosher-for-Passover goods.

🍽️ Traditional Foods

Matzah — unleavened bread baked within eighteen minutes — replaces all bread and grain for the week. The Seder plate holds six symbols: zeroa (roasted bone), beitzah (egg), maror (bitter herbs like horseradish), charoset (a paste of apples, nuts, and wine representing mortar), karpas (parsley or celery dipped in salt water), and chazeret. Throughout the week, families cook matzah-based dishes such as matzah ball soup, matzah brei, and flourless cakes.

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