Passover is a major Jewish festival, celebrating the most significant event in Israel's ancient history, the deliverance from Egypt.
It begins on the 15th of the "first month", later called Nisan, and is seven days long. Only unleavened bread may be eaten during the festival, in commemoration of the events during the Exodus. In their haste to leave Egypt, the Israelites, which is what the Jews were called in ancient times, took their dough before it was leavened, baking it into unleavened bread (Exodus 12:34, 39).
Passover relates to the tenth plague (Exodus, chapters 11 and 12) when God passed through Egypt, smiting every first born in the land, but He spared the firstborn of the Israelites, by "passing over" their houses whose doorposts He had ordered marked by the blood of the paschal lamb.
Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples (known as The Last Supper) in the upper room, the day before his crucifixion.
Sometimes the Hebrew word for Passover is spoken and written in English as Pesach or Pesah.
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