פסח

it is getting to be that time around the world: spring cleaning. here in israel, i feel like that has more depth than just throwing away junk and cleaning out your house for the new year (i am now wondering why the new year doesn't start with the spring season). פסח, or passover, is one of the most important religious holidays in judaism. i don't know if you are familiar with the bible, especially the old testament, passover is connected with the ten plagues god unleashed on egypt for not releasing the israelites from slavery. for the tenth plague, god intended on killing the first born sons. however, israelites were instructed to mark their doors with the blood of a spring lamb and god would pass over their house. when the pharoah let the israelites go, they left in such a hurry that they didn't wait for their bread to rise. פסח is celebrated for seven days in the festival of unleavened bread. it is also one of three pilgrim festivals, the other two being שבועות and סכות.

one or two weeks before the start of פסח, most households in israel clean out their houses. the orthodox jews do so even more vigorously to remove any traces of חמץ, wheat products, which include yeast goods, certain cakes, and most distilled liquor, from the house. afterwards, they do a formal search of חמץ with a feather duster and a wooden spoon. any found are then burned. while, none of my flatmates are religious in any way, they partake in cleaning out the house thoroughly. there is an elaborate meal called סדר (seder) for פסח that is quite long and can span the course of two days. there is retelling of the story, washing, and consumming unleavened bread and bitter herbs. hopefully, i'll be adopted by a family for this!