Passover Fast Facts

Here's a look at the Jewish holiday of Passover.

The holiday will be celebrated from sundown on April 22 through April 30, 2024.

Passover, also called Pesach, is the Jewish festival celebrating the exodus of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery in the 1200s BC. The story is chronicled in the Old Testament book of Exodus. In the book, Israelites marked their doorposts with lamb's blood to protect children from the tenth plague: the slaughter of the first born. With the protective mark, the destruction would "pass over" the house.

The word "Passover" comes from a Biblical story about the ten plagues God inflicted on Egypt for enslaving the Israelites.

The story of Passover is told in the Bible in Chapter 12 of the Book of Exodus.

During one plague, God killed every Egyptian first-born male but passed over the homes of the Israelites.

Passover is also sometimes called the Festival of Unleavened Bread.