When Is Passover?

The Bible says that the Passover is on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew Calendar (Leviticus 23:5).

But most Jews do not celebrate the Passover on the 14th day of the month. Instead, they celebrate Passover as a seven-day festival from the 15th to the 21st day of the first month. They begin this festival with a Passover Seder meal after sunset, at the very beginning of the 15th day of the month.

Christians who follow the example of Jesus Christ celebrate the Passover at the beginning of the 14th day of the month. This is the same Passover that Jesus celebrated with His disciples the night before He died, and it is the date commanded in Leviticus 23:5.

The confusion about the date of the Passover probably began about 200 years before Jesus died, when the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes forbade the Jews from keeping their religion. His plan ultimately failed, but it seems that this disruption caused confusion about the proper dates of some of the festivals, because shortly after that time, the Jews became divided into different sects, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, and these groups disagreed about when and how to celebrate some of the festivals.

When Jesus was born, most of the Jews used the same Hebrew Calendar, but they had disagreements about which day to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost).

The Pharisees taught that Passover lambs should be killed on the afternoon of the 14th day of the month and eaten after sunset (on the beginning of the 15th day of the month). But others, including Jesus and His followers, killed the Passover lambs after sunset at the very beginning of the 14th, and celebrated the Passover the same night, one day earlier than the Pharisees.

If we go back to the book of Exodus, we see that the Israelites celebrated the Passover on the 14th (Exodus 12:6), and they were not allowed to leave their homes until the next morning (Exodus 12:22).

The next night they left Egypt (Deuteronomy 16:1) “on the fifteenth day of the month; on the day after the Passover” (Numbers 33:3). The night that they left Egypt (the 15th) is “a night of solemn observance” (Exodus 12:42), but it is not the Passover.

The original name for the seven-day festival from the 15th to the 21st is the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6-8). It is a separate festival from Passover. But notice that this feast is also called “Passover” by the Jews:

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. (Luke 22:1)

So the seven-day feast that the Jews call “Passover” is actually the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The early Christians always celebrated the Passover on the 14th day of the month. That is why they were called Quartodecimans (which means 14). And God’s Church still celebrates the Passover on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew Calendar.

To get the correct date for Passover this year, see the Hebrew Calendar.