Passover 2020: Here is everything you need to know about Pesach

Passover or Pesach in Hebrew is a significant Jewish holiday and one of the most generally celebrated Jewish holidays. Passover 2020 starts at sundown on Wednesday, April 8.

What Is Passover?

The eight-day celebration of Passover is celebrated in the early winter, from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan, April 8 – April 16, 2020. Passover (Pesach) honors the liberation of the Israelites from servitude in ancient Egypt. Pesach is seen by keeping away from the leaven and featured by the Seder dinners that incorporate four cups of wine, eating matzah and bitter herbs, and retelling the narrative of the Exodus.

In Hebrew, it is known as Pesach (which signifies “to pass over”), because G‑d passed over the Jewish homes when killing the Egyptian firstborn on the absolute first Passover eve, saving the lives of their children.

The Jewish holiday of Passover (in Hebrew, Pesach) honors the departure of the Jews from servitude in Egypt. The holiday began in the Torah, where the word Pesach alludes to the old Passover sacrifice (known as the Paschal Lamb); it is likewise said to allude to the idea that God “passed over” (Pesach) the houses of the Jews during the 10th plague on the Egyptians, the slaying of the firstborn. The holiday is ultimately a festival of freedom, and the tale of the departure from Egypt is an incredible metaphor that is recognized by Jews, as well as by individuals of different beliefs too.

When is Passover 2020?

Passover 2020 is from sundown on April 8, 2020, to sundown on Thursday, April 16. The date of Passover changes every year because the date is set not by the Gregorian calendar, however by the lunar-based Hebrew calendar. It generally happens during the Hebrew month of Nisan.

Passover begins on the evening of the 15th of the Jewish month of Nisan. In secular calendar terms, this event customarily starts in late March or early April.

What night is Passover Seder?

The Passover Seder is a feast held on the first night of Passover that denotes the start of the holiday. Some Jewish diasporas additionally hold a seder on the second night of the holiday.

How is Passover celebrated?

Passover is observed for seven days in Israel and eight days in the Diaspora. The main event of the Passover holiday is the seder (actually, “order”), a festive meal wherein the Haggadah (the book of exodus and related writings) is presented in a set order. During the whole span of the holiday, it is forbidden to eat leavened food products, (for example, bread, pasta, and so forth.). The purpose behind this is Jewish tradition states that in their haste to escape from Egypt the Jews needed more time to trust that bread will rise. Rather, they ate matzah, unleavened bread. Some portion of the Passover seder incorporates hiding the afikoman (half of the matzah that is kept between two different matzahs during the seder and later hidden). Children search for the afikoman and the most part get a prize for discovering it.

For many Jews, the way toward planning for Passover includes cleaning every corner of the home and expelling every single leavened product, known as chametz. A few Jews practice biur chametz (burning chametz). Others keep all the chametz in a different region of the house where it won’t be seen and symbolically sell the chametz. This should be possible through a local synagogue, and chametz is normally sold for a nominal amount of cash (frequently a few coins). Numerous Jews have special Passover dishes that are just used once per year during the holiday.

Passover is ordinarily celebrated with a feast called a seder on the first evening of the holiday, however, some may stretch out seders to the second evening of Passover also. While everybody’s festivals fluctuate, the typical seder has a few prayers, symbols and blessings explicit for this event and incorporates a special seder plate. The seder plate ordinarily holds matzoh (unleavened bread), maror (bitter herbs), chazeret (bitter lettuce, regularly romaine), charoset (a pebbly-textured nut and fruit paste), karpas (a vegetable, frequently parsley, dipped in saltwater, vinegar or charoset), zeroa (a roasted goat or lamb bone) and beitzah (a roasted egg).

The Passover Story

As per the Hebrew Bible, Jewish settlement in antiquated Egypt initially happens when Joseph, a child of the patriarch Jacob and founder of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, moves his family there during an extreme famine in their country of Canaan.

For a long time, the Israelites live in harmony in the region of Goshen, yet as their populace develops the Egyptians start to consider them to be a risk. After the death of Joseph and his siblings, the story goes, an especially hostile pharaoh orders their slavery and the systematic drowning of their firstborn children in the Nile.

what kinds of foods are eaten on Passover?

Passover foods are one of a kind in that, past the usual principles of keeping kosher, there are special standards for getting ready food that is fit for Passover. Matzah is a central part of the seder and Passover suppers all through the span of the holiday. Symbolic foods eaten at the seder are: maror (bitter herbs, typically horseradish, a reminder of the bitterness of slavery), saltwater (symbolizing the tears of the slaves), charoset (a sweet paste made of fruit and nuts, symbolizing the mortar the slaves used to fabricate the Egyptian pyramids), zeroah (shank bone, representing the Passover penance), beitzah (hard-boiled egg, symbolic of life and birth-related with the spring season), and karpas (a leafy green vegetable, generally a bit of lettuce, symbolizing expectation and reclamation). It is required to drink four cups of wine all through the seder.

Some traditional Ashkenazi Passover dishes incorporate gefilte fish, matzah ball soup, brisket, and kosher-for-Passover kugels, and tzimmis (sweet carrot and fruit dish), and macaroons and sponge cake (produced using matzah meal) for dessert. A well-known breakfast food during the holiday is matzah brie (matzah soaked in water, dipped in egg, and fried).

Sephardic Jews have different kosher rules for this event than Ashkenazi Jews. Sephardic Jews permit legumes (kitniyot), nuts, corn, and rice to be eaten, while Ashkenazi Jews don’t.

Which food arranged for Seder represents the bitterness of slavery?

As per the Haggadah, maror (bitter herbs, for example, horseradish or romaine lettuce), symbolizes the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.

What’s the Significance of Wine During Passover?

The Torah teaches that at least four glasses of wine be consumed during the Passover seder, each symbolizing an alternate theme: One is salvation from harsh work (Jewish slaves manufactured pyramids), geographically leaving Egypt, Moses’ splitting of the seas and becoming their own country at Sinai. Some seder celebrations incorporate a fifth cup for the prophet Elijah, who manages the event, however, no celebrants drink from the fifth cup.

Passover Observances

Passover is divided into two sections:

The first two days and last two days (the latter honoring the parting of the Red Sea) are full-fledged holidays. Holiday candles are lit at night, and kiddush and luxurious holiday suppers are appreciated on the two nights and days. We don’t go to work, drive, compose, or switch on or off electric gadgets. We are allowed to cook and to carry outside.

The center four days are called Chol Hamoed, semi-festive “intermediate days,” when most forms of work are allowed.