Passover begins before sundown this Wednesday, April 1, 2026, and ends after nightfall on Thursday, April 9, 2026.
God saw the suffering of the enslaved Israelites and sent the prophet Moses to the ruling Egyptian Pharaoh to demand their freedom. When Pharaoh refused, God sent the 10 plagues to Egypt (the plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the firstborn) as punishment, destroying crops and livestock and afflicting the people.
When God set the final plague upon Egypt, killing all of the firstborn children, the children of the Israelites were spared and their homes "passed over" by death − hence, the name "passover."