When Is Passover
As is the case with most Jewish holidays, since they don’t fall on the same calendar day each year, you may be wondering when is Passover this year? Well, that really depends on when you’re reading this article.
When in Passover
This page may contain affiliate links, which means I may be compensated if you click a link. However, there is no cost to you. Also, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. For more info, please see my Privacy and Disclosure page.
First, I’ll share with you the dates for Passover — aka Pesach in Hebrew — for the next few years. Then, I’ll provide tips on preparing for Passover.
We’ve already shared the meaning of Passover in our recipe article for homemade matzo. Now, here are the dates that answer the question, “When is Passover?”
- Passover 2025: April 12-April 20, 2025
- Passover 2026: April 1-April 9, 2026 (that’s no April Fool’s Joke)
For 2025 the last day of Passover happens to be Easter Sunday. There is often a crossover between Passover and Easter. In 2026, Easter is April 5, right in the middle of the eight days of Passover.
Preparing for Passover
When you think about how to prepare for Passover, you may be thinking about what meal to prepare for a seder or a family dinner. However, when I think about preparations, I think about cleaning the house.
That is, I can remember the frenzy my mother would get into to get our home — primarily, the kitchen — ready for the holiday. We didn’t keep a kosher home, though my grandparents did. That meant that they had two sets of dishes, flatware, glasses, etc. One set was for dairy meals. The other set was for meat meals.
Never the twain shall meet. That is, you don’t eat meat and dairy together if you’re keeping kosher. I still remember the look of horror on my grandparents’ faces when, as a very little kid, I asked for a glass of chocolate milk with my hamburger.
But back to preparing for Pesach. This holiday throws a curveball into any kosher or non-kosher kitchen. Because since you’re not supposed to eat anything leavened — bread products with yeast —you need to clean all of that out of the kitchen.
Cleaning the kitchen before the holiday
Like cleaning out the cabinets, pantry and refrigerator by putting everything away somewhere else. Truly religious people donate all their old food, burn it or throw it away so it is literally out of the house for Passover.
Then, once all the food is gone and you’ve put away the everyday dishes, cookware, etc, you need to wash all of those spaces in the kitchen. Once you’re done, you need to take out a fresh set of dishes, flatware, glasses, pans, pots, etc. that you use only on Passover.
Just writing all of this from memory is making me sweat. No wonder my mom was always in a tizzy before this week-long holiday.
Some people go so far as to clean out pockets in coats, dump out contents of backpacks and vacuum their cars so they can get all of the non-Passover crumbs before the first seder. My family wasn’t that religious.
I wonder in a world of reusable bags how that affects shopping for Passover. Should you wash those reusable bags in hot water, then use them to buy the products that are labeled “Kosher for Passover”? That way you don’t contaminate anything you buy for the seder and beyond?
When should you start cleaning?
It all depends. Can you clean everything ahead of time and declare that part of the kitchen off limits? Or if you’re like many modern families, you have to live your life, with packing school lunches and what not. So, probably not until a day or two before the first seder can you start.
Again, now I really have a better appreciation of how much work my mother had to do before Passover. And we were a small family.
What is Kosher for Passover
You’ll notice that many products on supermarket shelves near spring will claim to be kosher for Passover. Only the packages with the U symbol plus the statement “kosher for Passover” are, pardon the pun, kosher for this holiday.
I just discovered this site called OUKosher that lists up-and-coming food products that will have a kosher for Passover version. This include Nutella — I didn’t realize that the product was neither kosher nor kosher for Passover — as well as certain chia seeds. When making my Grandma Yetta’s recipe for honey cake, I have to make sure that I’m using only ingredients that are kosher for Passover.
Is Passover a legal holiday?
Unless Passover overlaps with Easter — which is always on a Sunday, anyway — it is not a legal holiday. Growing up I can remember packing matzo sandwiches for my school lunch because we had to go to school during the holiday. Again, if we were lucky enough to have that overlap, then usually the week before or the week after would be school spring break so we got a vacation.
Regarding legal holidays, this article explains all of the federal holidays, meaning those recognized nationally. Some states have additional legal holidays.
The Passover Seder
In case you didn’t know, the Passover seder is a dinner held after sundown on the first night of the holiday. Passover begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, sometimes spelled Nissan like the car. However, because the Hebrew calendar doesn’t match up perfectly with our everyday calendar, Passover can fall at any time in March or April.
The Passover Seder is when Jewish people recount the story of Israelites who were escaping slavery in Egypt. Because they didn’t have time to let their bread rise before leaving, that is why we Jews eat unleavened bread also known as matzah (or matza or matzoh, depending on the spelling) at the seder and for all eight days of Passover.
You read from something called a Haggadah which takes you through the ritual of the seder, including why we eat bitter herbs and talk about plagues and all the fun stuff that the people of Israel had to endure.
You’ll find the story of Passover in the book of Exodus in the Bible.