These two special spring festivals were brought together in the Jewish calendar long before the time of Jesus. Passover was celebrated to remind the people of Israel how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Exod 12,13). It was to be celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month, Nisan, a month that overlaps March and April on modern calendars. Passover started at sunset. The Festival of Thin Bread began the next day, the fifteenth day of the first month, and lasted for seven days (Lev 23:4-8; Num 28:17-25).

During the Passover Festival, a lamb was to be killed, roasted, and eaten. The blood of the lamb was a reminder of the blood that the Israelites put on their doorposts before God sent a final plague on Egypt. God’s angel of death “passed over” the Israelite homes that were marked by the blood, but the death angel killed the first-born in the families of Egypt (Exod 12:1-27). The thin (unleavened) bread that was to be eaten during Passover and during the seven days of the Festival of Thin Bread was a reminder of how quickly the people had to leave Egypt. They did not have time to let the dough for their bread rise, so they made bread without using yeast. Bread made this way will always be flat, like a cracker.

The Festival of Thin Bread also became a time to give thanks to God for the annual harvest of grain, which provided food for all the people. Later, these two feasts were joined and celebrated partly at the temple in Jerusalem and partly in people’s homes. Jewish people came from all over the world to be in Jerusalem to take part in these yearly feasts. Here they recalled with thanks what God had done for them in the past and celebrated their life together in the present.

The reports of the celebration of these meals in the time of Jesus includes both the offering and eating of the sacrificial lamb, eating thin bread and drinking wine. Children were taught the meaning of the meal as they ate it. Jews throughout the world continue to celebrate these important festivals in much the same manner.