Passover (2008 Dates: April 20 - April 27)

Passover (or Pesach) is one of the most significant events of the Jewish calendar. The holiday lasts eight days and commemorates the Israelite's liberation from generations of slavery in Egypt, and their Exodus from that country through the Sea of Reeds (the Red Sea) 3,300 years ago.

Ramses II was the Pharaoh in Egypt during this time. Moses visited Ramses to plead for Israelite freedom and warn him that, should this request be ignored, dire consequences would follow in the form of ten plagues -- blood, frogs, lice/vermin, wild beasts/flies, blight, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the slaying of the fist born.

Ramses remained unconvinced and was not persuaded until the last plague when the Israelites, who had marked their homes with lamb's blood, avoided the death of the first-born children that the rest of the land faced. This sparing of the Israelite first born, or "passing over," is the origin of the celebration's name.

The first two nights of Passover are celebrated with the Seder -- a traditional and ritualized family meal that is intended to inspire reflection upon the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to Mount Sinai.

Matzo (unleavened bread -- just dough from water and flour, no yeast) is both a symbol of and one of the main foods of Passover. It is a reminder that when the Jews left Egypt they did so with such haste, that they had no time to bake bread to take on their journey. The dough that they did take was baked into hard crackers in the desert sun.

Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot are considered the three pilgrim festivals that recognize the pilgrimage of the Jewish population to Jerusalem. Passover and Shavuot are sometimes also connected with the celebration of the grain harvest in ancient Israel -- with the barley harvest traditionally happening on Passover and the wheat harvest on Shavuot.