10 Passover World Customs!

Learning Jewish Traditions

Photo of a Yemenite family celebrating Passover in 1946 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Zoltan Kluger)

Jews around the world use the exact Hebrew text for the Passover Seder.

(The first Passover Seder occurs on the evening of April 15th. It starts & ends at sundown and is tied to the phases of the sun & the moon. The second Passover Seder begins on the evening of April 16th.)

Though Haggadah's editions are different, the core text is almost the same.

In keeping with the strictures of the Torah and the Mishnah, Jews around the world eat many of the same ritual foods, like matzah, maror, & haroset.

Seder hosts seek to make the Passover themes of liberation & memory relevant to their own cultures and familial experiences.

Jewish communities have developed several unique Passover traditions, such as the Sephardic tradition of singing Had Gadya in Ladino or Moroccan.

Their festive Passover meal is the carb-fueled Mimouna.

A variety of sweets at a Mimouna celebration in Manhattan last year, including citron (etrog) confiture, strawberry confiture, pomelo peel jam, and whole orange cooked with syrup and cinnamon sticks. Preparation by Meirav Alcobi Gavrielov and her mother, Rebecca Alcobi. Francesco Sapienza for The New York Times

Setting a traditional Mimouna table begins with foods you lay out as symbols but do not eat:

1. A live fish in a bowl denotes…