Passover 2026 begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 1 and continues through Thursday, April 9. It is the oldest continuously observed festival in Judaism — and one of the oldest religious observances still practiced by any living community on earth.
The story it tells is about freedom. Not gradual improvement. Not incremental progress. Sudden, complete, miraculous liberation from slavery. And then the long road through the wilderness that follows.
When Is Passover 2026?
Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) begins on the 15th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. In 2026, that falls on:
First Seder: Wednesday evening, April 1, 2026
Second Seder: Thursday evening, April 2, 2026 (observed in diaspora communities)
Passover ends: Thursday, April 9, 2026 at nightfall
The Exodus: The Story at the Center
*It is written in Exodus 12:14:* "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD — a lasting ordinance."
The narrative begins in Egypt where the Israelites have been enslaved for 400 years. Moses, raised in Pharaoh's household and then exiled, returns with a message: Let my people go. Pharaoh refuses. The ten plagues follow — culminating in the death of the firstborn, from which the Israelites are protected by the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. This is the origin of the name Pesach: the angel of death "passed over" the marked houses.
The Israelites leave in such haste there is no time to let the bread rise. They eat unleavened bread — matzah — and they are gone. The sea parts. The army drowns. And a people who were slaves are suddenly, irreversibly free.
The Seder: A Ritual That Puts You Inside the Story
The Passover Seder is not a history lecture. It is a ritual designed to make the participant feel as though they personally experienced the Exodus. The Haggadah — the text that guides the Seder — says explicitly: "In every generation, each person is obligated to see themselves as if they personally left Egypt."
This is radical theology. The past is not past. It is alive and present every year at the Seder table.
The Seder Plate and Its Symbols:
- Maror (bitter herbs, usually horseradish) — the bitterness of slavery
- Haroset (sweet mixture of apples, nuts, wine) — the mortar the slaves used to build
- Karpas (parsley or another vegetable) — new life, dipped in salt water for tears
- Zeroa (shank bone) — the Passover sacrifice
- Beitzah (roasted egg) — the festival offering, and the persistence of life
- Chazeret (romaine lettuce) — an additional bitter herb
The Four Questions (asked by the youngest child):
Why is this night different from all other nights?
Because on all other nights we eat bread — tonight only matzah. On all other nights we eat all vegetables — tonight bitter herbs. On all other nights we do not dip even once — tonight we dip twice. On all other nights we sit in any position — tonight we recline.
The questions open the door for the telling of the whole story. The youngest asks. The whole table answers.
The Four Cups of Wine represent the four divine promises in Exodus 6:6-7: I will bring you out. I will deliver you. I will redeem you. I will take you as my people.
Elijah's Cup — a fifth cup is poured but not drunk. The door is opened for the prophet Elijah, harbinger of the Messianic era. The cup waits, as the world waits, for a redemption that is not yet complete.
The Haggadah: A Living Text
The word Haggadah means "telling." There is not one Haggadah but thousands. Traditional, feminist, socialist, illustrated, abridged, expanded. Every generation has rewritten it because the instruction is not to preserve the exact words but to tell the story in the language of the people who are sitting at the table.
The most-used traditional Haggadah includes:
- The telling of the Exodus narrative
- Midrashic commentary and debate
- Psalms (the Hallel)
- Songs (Chad Gadya, Echad Mi Yodea)
- Readings about the four types of children and what to teach each one
Passover and Easter: The Inescapable Connection
*It is written in Mark 14:12:* "On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, his disciples asked him, 'Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?'"
The Last Supper was a Passover Seder. This is not disputed by any serious scholar. Jesus and his disciples were observing Pesach. The bread he broke was matzah. The cups he shared were the cups of the Seder. When he said "do this in remembrance of me," he was using the same language the Haggadah uses: do this to remember what God did for us.
Easter is theologically downstream from Passover. The lamb of God is the Passover lamb. The blood that saves is the blood on the doorpost. The new liberation is from the bondage not of Egypt but of death itself. Christians who understand this see Easter not as a replacement of Passover but as its continuation and completion. Jews who understand this see Easter as a particular interpretation of the Exodus story — meaningful to its believers, rooted in the same ancient soil.
Both traditions are asking: what does it mean to be freed from the thing that enslaves you? Both answer: it costs something. And it changes everything.
What Passover Asks of Every Generation
The rabbis debated why the Haggadah tells the story rather than just commanding the observance. The answer, embedded in the Talmud, is that the liberation from Egypt is only meaningful if you understand what you were liberated from and what you are liberated for.
Freedom is not the absence of difficulty. The Israelites left Egypt and immediately faced the wilderness. They faced thirst, hunger, fear, and the memory of the food they ate as slaves. They complained. They backslid. Freedom requires being willing to live with uncertainty rather than return to the comfort of bondage.
Every generation finds its Egypt. Every generation has to choose whether to leave.
*It is written in Deuteronomy 16:3:* "So that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt."
Not just once a year at the Seder. All the days of your life.
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*Explore more:* Passover Holiday Page | Jewish Texts Library | Easter 2026 Guide
Traditions Covered