The History of Passover : To be Celebrated on April 2 & 3rd

The Passover Seder:
It is traditions for a Jewish family to gather on the first night of Passover for a special dinner called a Seder meaning “order” This dinner is to fulfill the Biblical dictum of “You should tell your child on that day.” Which is understood to be an obligation of retelling the story of the Exodus on the night of Passover.

The History of Passover:
Passover commemorates the Exodus and freedom of the Israelites from ancient Egypt. As described in the Book of Exodus, Passover marks the "birth" of the Children of Israel who become the Jewish nation, as the Jews' ancestors were freed from being slaves of Pharaoh and allowed to become followers of God instead.

The two names for the holiday are a coalescence of two related celebrations. The name Passover (Pesakh, meaning "skipping" or passing over) derives from the night of the Tenth Plague, when the Angel of Death saw the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of the houses of Israel and "skipped over" them and did not kill their firstborn. The meal of the Passover Seder commemorates this event. The name Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag Ha'Matsot) refers to the weeklong period when leaven has been removed, and unleavened bread or matzo ("flatbread") is eaten.

Together with Sukkot ("Tabernacles") and Shavuot ("Pentecost"), Passover is one of the three pilgrim festivals (Shloshet Ha'Regalim) during which the entire Jewish populace made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, at the time when the Temple in Jerusalem was standing.


The Seder Plate
The Passover Seder Plate (ke'ara) is a special plate containing six symbolic foods used during the Passover Seder. Each of the six items arranged on the plate have special significance to the retelling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The seventh symbolic item used during the meal—a stack of three matzo—is placed on its own plate on the Seder table.

The six items on the Seder Plate are:

* Maror; A Type of bitter herb, symbolizing the bitterness and harshness of the slavery which the Jews endured in Ancient Egypt. For maror, many people use freshly grated horseradish or whole horseradish root. The horseradish may be eaten in fulfillment of the mitzvah of eating bitter herbs during the Seder.
* Charoset; A sweet, brown, pebbly mixture, representing the mortar used by the Jewish slaves to build the storehouses of Egypt. Typically apples, honey and nuts.
* Karpas; A vegetable other than bitter herbs, such as celery or cooked potato, which is dipped into salt water (Ashkenazi custom), vinegar (Sephardic custom) or charoset (older custom, still common amongst Yemenite Jews) at the beginning of the Seder.
* Z'roa; A roasted shank bone, symbolizing the korban Pesach (Pesach sacrifice), which was a lamb offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.
* Beitzah; A roasted egg, symbolizing the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.