What Is the Passover?

 The Bible's Answer

The Passover is the Jewish celebration of God's liberating the Israelites Egyptian slavery in 1513 B.C.E. God commanded the Israelites to remember that important event each year on the 14th day  of the Jewish month Abib, which was later called Nisan. - EXODUS 12:42; LEVITICUS 23:5.

Why Called the Passover?

The word "Passover" refers to the time when God spared the Israelites from the calamity  that killed every firstborn in Egypt. (Exodus 12:27; 13:15) Before God carried out this devastating plague, he told the Israelites to splash the blood of a slaughtered lamb or goat on their doorways. (Exodus  12:21, 22)  God would see this sign and "pass over" their homes and spare their firstborn. - EXODUS 12:7, 13. 

Next time: What Is the Passover? - How Was the Passover Observed in Bible Times?

From the jw.org publications