Passover in the U.S. lasts two nights because of the moon

Passover in the U.S. (and anywhere else outside of Israel) lasts two nights because of the moon. Back in the day, the Jewish people followed a lunar calendar, with each month starting with the new moon. Each month, someone needed to witness the new moon and then passed the word on to others that it was a new month. They didn't have 5 million methods of communication like we have today, so the news of a new month didn't always get there on time - celebrating for two days versus one insured that people outside of Israel got the right day.

And what is Passover you ask? Passover, or Pesach, commemorates the exodus of the Jewish people from 400 years of slavery in Egypt over 3,000 years ago (back, back, back, back in the day, believe it or not it's the year 5769 for the children of Israel). We have a very symbolic dinner called the Seder, which is filled with lots of symbolism...

...four glasses of wine...

and like any other Jewish holiday, way too much food.


During Passover Jews refrain from eating leavened bread (or anything that rises) for seven days, which means I won't be eating anything fun until Sunday (which is when I decide to embrace my Branigan roots, and break Passover for Easter).

For more information on Passover visit Judaism 101.

This post was inspired by Crissy and her questions about Passover.