Practices in JudaismPesach and Sukkot

Pesach is a festival held in March or April that celebrates the Jews’ escape from slavery in Egypt. It lasts for seven to eight days and begins with the Seder, which consists of a service and a meal.

Wine is served, as it is at all Jewish festivals, but on Pesach it takes on another meaning as a symbol of the lambs’ blood painted onto the doorposts to save Jewish children from the final of the ten plagues. Matzah is eaten to represent the fact that the Jews did not have time to let the bread rise before their escape.

The foods on the Seder plate each symbolise a part of the Exodus story, which is retold during the meal using a book of ritual called the Haggadah. These foods are:

• karpas - a green vegetable dipped in salt water and symbolising both new life and the tears shed by the Jews in slavery
• maror - bitter herbs, symbolising the bitterness of slavery
• baytsah - an egg (not to be eaten) to represent sacrifices in the Temple
• z’roah - a lamb bone (also not eaten) representing the lamb sacrificed before the Exodus
• charoset - a sweet paste to remind Jews that life is sweeter now

Sukkot

Sukkot occurs five days after Yom Kippur and is typically celebrated for eight or nine days. This festival is a reminder of the Jews who lived in the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt around the 7th century BC. Their time in the desert is commemorated with the building of tent-like structures called sukkah. During this festival, Jews eat and sometimes even sleep in their own sukkah as a reminder of their ancestors who lived this way in the wilderness.