Passover

Culture of origin: Jewish · Cultural

Holiday sources: Iran · Israel · Judaism

Passover (Pesach) celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. Its name comes from the story that God passed over the Israelites' homes, marked with the blood of a lamb, during the tenth plague. At the Seder meal the story is retold from the Haggadah, and for the whole festival Jews may not eat or keep leavened food (chametz). At Persian Jews' Seders, everyone strikes one another with green onions during the chorus of the song Dayenu, in memory of the whips that beat the Israelites as slaves in Egypt.