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Passover or Pesach (;〔("Pesach" ). ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.〕 from Hebrew ''Pesah, Pesakh'', Assyrian; ܦܸܨܚܵܐ"piskha"), is an important, biblically derived Jewish festival. The Jewish people celebrate Passover as a commemoration of their liberation by God from slavery in Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in the Hebrew Bible especially in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. According to standard biblical chronology, this event would have taken place at about 1300 BCE (AM 2450).〔The Seder Olam Rabbah calculates the lifespan of Moses as 1391–1271 BCE, which would correspond to a date of the Exodus of forty years before 1271, i.e. 1311 BCE.〕 Passover is a spring festival which during the existence of the Jerusalem Temple was connected to the offering of the "first-fruits of the barley", barley being the first grain to ripen and to be harvested in the Land of Israel.〔Josephus, Antiquities 3.250-251, in Josephus IV Jewish Antiquities Books I-IV, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1930, pp. 437-439.〕 Passover commences on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for either seven days (in Israel) and for Reform Jews and other progressive Jews around the world who adhere to the Biblical commandment or eight days for Orthodox,Hasidic, and most Conservative Jews (in the diaspora). In Judaism, a day commences at dusk and lasts until the following dusk, thus the first day of Passover only begins ''after'' dusk of the 14th of Nisan and ends at dusk of the 15th day of the month of Nisan. The rituals unique to the Passover celebrations commence with the Passover Seder when the 15th of Nisan has begun. In the Northern Hemisphere Passover takes place in spring as the Torah prescribes it: "in the month of () spring" (בחדש האביב ). It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays. In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape from their slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born. The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to ''pass over'' the first-born in these homes, hence the English name of the holiday. When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason Passover was called the feast of unleavened bread in the Torah or Old Testament.〔, , 〕 Thus ''Matzo'' (flat unleavened bread) is eaten during Passover and it is a tradition of the holiday. Historically, together with Shavuot ("Pentecost") and Sukkot ("Tabernacles"), Passover is one of the three pilgrimage festivals (''Shalosh Regalim'') during which the entire population of the kingdom of Judah made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.〔David M. Gitlitz & Linda Kay Davidson ''Pilgrimage and the Jews'' (Westport: CT: Praeger, 2006), 24-35.〕 Samaritans still make this pilgrimage to Mount Gerizim, but only men participate in public worship. ==Date and duration== The Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which typically falls in March or April of the Gregorian calendar. Passover is a spring festival, so the 15th day of Nisan begins on the night of a full moon after the northern vernal equinox. To ensure that Passover did not start before spring, the tradition in ancient Israel held that the first day of Nisan would not start until the barley was ripe, being the test for the onset of spring.〔The barley had to be "eared` out" (ripe) in order to have a wave-sheaf offering of the first fruits according to the Law. This also presupposes that the cycle is based on the northern hemisphere seasons.〕 If the barley was not ripe, or various other phenomena〔"..., when the fruit had not grown properly, when the winter rains had not stopped, when the roads for Passover pilgrims had not dried up, and when the young pigeons had not become fledged. The council on intercalation considered the astronomical facts together with the religious requirements of Passover and the natural conditions of the country." - , p. 1〕 indicated that spring was not yet imminent, an intercalary month (Adar II) would be added. However, since at least the 4th century, the date has been fixed mathematically.〔"In the fourth century, ... the patriarch Hillel II ... made public the system of calendar calculation which up to then had been a closely guarded secret. It had been used in the past only to check the observations and testimonies of witnesses, and to determine the beginning of the spring season." - Spier 1952, p. 2〕 In the Israel, Passover is the seven-day holiday of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with the first and last days observed as legal holidays and as holy days involving abstention from work, special prayer services, and holiday meals; the intervening days are known as Chol HaMoed ("Weekdays () the Festival"). Diaspora Jews historically observed the festival for eight days, and most still do. Reform and Reconstructionist Jews and Israeli Jews, wherever they are, usually observe the holiday over seven days. The reason for this extra day is due to enactment of the ancient Jewish sages. It is thought by many scholars that Jews outside of Israel could not be certain if their local calendars fully conformed to practice of the Temple at Jerusalem, so they added an extra day. But as this practice only attaches to certain (major) sacred days, others posit the extra day may have been added to accommodate people who had to travel long distances to participate in communal worship and ritual practices; or the practice may have evolved as a compromise between conflicting interpretations of Jewish Law regarding the calendar; or it may have evolved as a safety measure in areas where Jews were commonly in danger, so that their enemies would not be certain on which day to attack.〔De Lange, Nicholas (2000). An Introduction to Judaism. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press. p. 97〕 Karaites and Samaritans use different versions of the Jewish calendar, which are often out of sync with the modern Jewish calendar by one or two days. In ''2009'', for example, Nisan 15 on the Jewish calendar used by Rabbinic Judaism corresponds to April 9. On the calendars used by Karaites and Samaritans, ''Abib'' or ''Aviv'' 15 (as opposed to 'Nisan') corresponds to April 11 in ''2009''. The Karaite and Samaritan Passovers are each one day long, followed by the six day Festival of Unleavened Bread – for a total of seven days. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Passover」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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