What Is Passover?
Passover is a Jewish holiday that commemorates when the death angel passed over the Israelites’ houses.
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt.
At God’s prompting, Moses went to the Pharaoh and asked him to let the people go.
The Pharaoh refused and as a result God sent several plagues.
The 10th one was that the death angel would pass over each house and strike dead the first born of each family as well as that of their cattle.
To spare His own people, God instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb and to smear its blood around the outer door frame of their home. When the angel passed by it would not kill anyone inside a home with these markings.
This plague finally convinced the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. He even told them they could take with them whatever they wanted, which allowed them to gather needed supplies for their journey.
To commemorate this event, God called the Israelites to yearly observe this Passing Over with a 7-day festival.
During this time no one may eat anything with leavening (yeast) in it. They must remove all yeast from their house.
On the first and seventh day of the festival they are to hold a solemn assembly. No one is to work on these days except to make food for the people to eat. (Exodus 12:14-20)
This festival is to take place from the evening of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day of the Hebrew month Nisan.