Pesach/Passover

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Passover (in Hebrew Pesach) in one of the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar. It's celebrates the story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The holiday has been celebrated since about 1300 BCE (BC to us older folks.) The holiday lasts for 8 days, from the 15th to 22nd of Nissan.

The Passover Story

During the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, the Hebrews were held as slaves in Egypt. After generations of slavery, the Pharaoh a Hebrew baby came to be raised in the palace, spent part of his adult life in Midian with other Hebrew's who weren't slaves, and returned to Egypt to free the enslaved Hebrews. When the Pharaoh didn't release the Hebrews on command, the Hebrew god sent a plague that affected the Egyptians, but not the Hebrews. 10 plagues in all. (1. Water turned to blood,  2. frogs, 3. lice, 4. flies, 5. death of livestock, 6. boils, 7. hail, 8. locusts, 9. darkness, and 10. death of the first born.).

Just before the 10th plague, the Hebrews were directed to slaughter a male lamb 4 days before, brush the blood on their door frame, and make a special meal with the meat of the lamb. When the angel of death came to kill the fist born child of each family in Egypt,  it "passed over" the homes with blood on the door frame, giving the holiday it's name.

After the 10th plague, the Pharaoh agreed to let his Hebrew slaves go free.

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How Passover Is Celebrated

The central ritual of Passover is the Passover Seder. That is a ritual meal that is played out almost as if it's a play.  It consists of symbolic foods and a script from the Haggadah. The celebration is primarily at home, but traditional Judaism prohibits working on the first and last days of the holiday. The community part of the holiday includes special services in the synagogue with readings, psalms, and the Yizkor service of remembrance is recited on the last day.

The most important of the symbolic foods is the matzah, a type of unleavened bread. Other symbolic foods are Karpas (green vegetable, usually parsley); Haroset (sweet fruit paste), the bitter herbs Maror (usually horseradish) and Hazeret (usually Romaine), Zeroa (shank bone), and Beitzah (egg). It's also common to have salt water or vinegar on the Sedar table.

Sources

• BBC page on Passover
• Myjewishlearning.com page on Passover and the Seder

• myjewishlearning on the Haggadah and Yizkor
• Judaism 101 page on Passover with part of the text and some of the music
• ReformJudaism.org page

Holy Week

To Christians, Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, and runs the entire week through Easter the following Sunday. It's a week to celebrate the part of the Jesus story that begins with him entering Jerusalem for the last time, his betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and rising from the dead.  Easter (along with Christmas) are the two main religious holidays in the Christian tradition.

The date for the week is established based on the date of Easter, which is determined by a combination of the season and the status of the moon. The council of Nicea declared Easter Sunday to be the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (aka first day of spring.) That is still how the date is determined among non-Orthodox Christian churches.

Palm Sunday (or Passion Sunday)

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Palm Sunday is the last Sunday before Easter, and kicks off Holy Week. The church services that day read the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem that's recorded in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12. During services, parishioners are given palm branches to wave.

The history of celebrating the day is uncertain, but there are records of the day being celebrated as early as the 4th century in Jerusalem, and the 9th century elsewhere.  

Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday)

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Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter.  Out of the days of Holy Week covered here, Maundy Thursday is the one that is mostly likely to not be understood  by the average Christian.

Maundy Thursday is believed to be the day Jesus Christ celebrated his last Passover. (My post on Passover will go up later this week.)  According the the Biblical story, his last Passover is when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples (an act of humility), commanded his disciples to do the same with each other, and commanded his disciples to love each other.

Good Friday

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Good Friday is the Friday before Easter and the day Christians believe Jesus was hung on the cross until dead.

In church services held on Good Friday, it's traditional to not serve communion as it's a day of sorrow and communion is seen as a celebration. It's also traditional to remove ornamentation on the altar and cover both the altar and the cross in black to signify death.

It's also not uncommon for some churches to have Stations of the Cross during their service, where each station symbolizes a part of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion in the story of his death.

Easter Sunday

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To Christians, Easter Sunday is believed to be the day that Jesus rose from the dead, making it a day of great joy for Christians.

In many churches, it's customary to have what is called a "sunrise service" in the early morning (ex. 6 am). For churches that have that and the Good Friday service mentioned above, this service starts off dark, then the black covering the altar and cross are removed and the ornamentations replaced. Simultaneously, the lights in the sanctuary (or nave) are brightened to symbolize Jesus rising from the dead.

There are many ways to celebrate the day. One common way Christians celebrate is to get together with their family and enjoy a meal together. Lamb is common as the meat for the meal because Christians see Jesus as the "lamb of God." However, ham is traditional in my family, and I'm sure many others.

Sources

• ThoughtCo pages on Palm Sunday, 
• Christianity.com page on Maundy Thursday  
• Christian Research Institute's pages on the week and the Easter Vigil

St. Patrick's Day

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Of course, to understand St. Patrick's Day, we first have to know something about the man  the holiday is named for.

Saint Patrick

St. Patrick
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There are many stories about things Patrick supposedly did during his life. Most of which are nothing more then stories. The most famous example of one of these stories is probably that story that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. (The snakes weren't there for him to banish.) Besides the stories (you can call them folk tales if you like), there's not much we know about his life.

What we do know is that he was born to wealthy parents in Britain, not Ireland, most likely near the end of the 4th century CE (AD to us older folks.) Even though his father was a Christian deacon, there is no evidence that he came from a deeply religious family.

When Irish raiders attacked his family's estate when Patrick was 16, he was taken prisoner and brought to Ireland and was in captivity for the next 6 years. While he was in captivity, he was put to work as a shepheard away from people. This is when he really turned to religion and became a devout Christian.

After the 6 years of captivity, he escaped and made his way back to Britain. After getting back, he began 15 years of religious training. At the end of the training, he was made an ordained priest, and sent back to Ireland with 2 missions. 1 to cater to the Christians that were already there, and the second to convert as many non-Christian Irish to Christianity as he could. Since he was already familiar with the language and culture, he chose to incorporate those native traditions into Irish Christianity. (He wasn't the first to incorporate "pagan" beliefs into Christianity to convert people.)

His death is believed to be 17 March 461 CE

History

The St. Patrick feast day has been celebrated in Ireland since about the 9th or 10th century. However, the first St. Patrick Day parade took place 17 March 1762 in New York City. It was organized by Irish soldiers serving in the British military to reconnect with their Irish roots and to connect with fellow Irish soldiers. The holiday and parades grew from there.

After the Great Potato Famine in 1845, almost 1 million poor, uneducated Irish immigrated to the US in an attempt to escape starvation. Despised for having unfamiliar accents and different religious beliefs, they had trouble finding jobs, and were portrayed in political cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.

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Traditions

There are several traditions surrounding St. Patrick's Day. Some that cross borders, and others that are particular to a city.

Parades have already been touched on, and is one tradition that crosses borders. Multiple cities in the US have St. Patrick's Day parades. A parade is even part of Dublin's St. Patrick's Festival. At least in my part of the US, wearing green on St. Patrick's Day and pinching people who don't wear green that day is a tradition. Others include drinking Guinness (an Irish beer) and eating corned beef and cabbage.

Perhaps the most famous city specific tradition is Chicago's tradition of  dyeing the Chicago River green

Some of the symbols on the day are Shamrocks, leprechauns.

Some of the places where the holiday is celebrated

Sources

• History.com - St. Patrick, history

• More information on traditions can be found here
• St. Patrick's day in Old Ireland