Passover Seder

What it is

The Seder is the ritual meal that opens Passover. It is held at home once the sun has set and the 15th of the Hebrew month Nisan has begun. Places are laid for more than the household: guests are welcomed, and shared Seders are run by synagogues, schools and community centres, some of them open to anyone who comes. The evening follows a set shape, written out in the Haggadah, the book read aloud at the table. Its aim is to tell how the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Jews keep it in Israel and throughout the diaspora, and Samaritans are counted among those who observe it.

Order of the evening

The Haggadah sets the night in fifteen stages, taken in a fixed order. To start with, each person needs only a plate and a glass. Four cups of wine are poured and drunk at set moments: one for Kiddush, one for Maggid, one after the grace said over the meal and one for Hallel. Reclining to the left is the posture of free people, so participants lean while drinking each cup, while eating the afikoman and while eating the korech sandwich. Pillows are placed behind the leader and others for comfort. In some Ashkenazi Orthodox homes the leader wears a white robe called a kittel. Much of the text is said in Hebrew and Aramaic, with important passages repeated in a language everyone present understands.

Foods on the plate

Six foods lie on the Seder plate, each carrying part of the story. Maror, bitter herb such as horseradish, brings back the harshness of slavery. Chazeret is a second bitter item, commonly romaine lettuce. Charoset is a sweet paste of fruit and nuts, taken to suggest the mortar slaves used when building for Egypt; families make it their own way, with apples and raisins or with dates. Karpas is a green vegetable dipped in salt water, vinegar or charoset, a sign of freedom and of royal treatment. A roasted bone, the zeroa, stands for the Passover lamb offered in the Temple at Jerusalem. A roasted egg, the beitzah, stands for the festival offering made there. Three matzot sit on a plate of their own.

Children and questions

Teaching the next generation is the purpose of the night, so children are drawn into it. The youngest at the table asks a set of questions, and the answers begin Maggid, the long account of the Exodus. In some communities the whole company asks together, or acts out part of the story, and the leader replies or hands the question on to someone else. Leaders also lift a cup and cover the matzot, then reverse the actions, to make people curious. Nuts and sweets may be handed out when answers are right. The afikoman, a piece of matzah set aside, is hidden and searched for, with a prize for whoever finds it; in some homes children hide it and a parent must hunt.

Around the world

Seders take place wherever Jewish life is found, including far-off places: there is one in Kathmandu, Nepal, high in the Himalaya. Inside Israel the meal is held on the first night and the festival runs for seven days. Outside Israel the usual pattern is eight days, with a second Seder on the following evening; Reform and Reconstructionist Jews are the general exception to that second night. Men and women share the same obligation to take part. Keeping the Seder is common far beyond those who follow religious law closely, and for many it is the best known of all Jewish observances.

How Passover Seder is kept

Family and guests gather at home after sunset on the 15th of Nisan. Each person has a Haggadah, a plate and a glass. The leader takes the company through fifteen stages in order. The first cup is blessed; a green vegetable is dipped; the matzot are uncovered; the youngest asks questions and the story of the Exodus is told and discussed; the second cup is drunk. Then comes the meal, with matzah, bitter herbs and charoset. After it, the afikoman is found and eaten, grace is said over the third cup, and psalms of praise close the evening with the fourth. Shared Seders follow the same pattern.

When and where

The Seder begins on the evening of the 15th of Nisan, since Hebrew reckoning starts a day at sunset. In the Gregorian calendar that falls in late March or in April. Israel keeps one Seder; diaspora communities that hold eight days of Passover add a second one the next night. The date is fixed by the Hebrew calendar, not by a weekday.

The meal is normally eaten at home, in Jewish households across the world. Synagogues, schools and community centres also organise shared Seders, and some are open to the wider public. Israel and the diaspora both keep it, and Seders have been held in distant spots as well, such as Kathmandu in Nepal. It is counted among the most widely observed of Jewish rituals.

What Passover Seder means

Two ideas run through the evening: slavery and freedom. The foods and actions carry both. Part of the night looks back to bondage, part to release. The Haggadah asks each person to feel as though they personally came out of Egypt, so the story is not only history but something to enter into. Praise, thanksgiving and a fresh commitment to freedom follow, and the retelling passes the faith down the generations. The four cups are read as promises of deliverance, with teachers linking them to the four matriarchs, to four worlds or to four moments of redemption.

Days Passover Seder is marked

Questions people ask about Passover Seder

See also

PassoverA Jewish spring festival celebrating freedom from slavery with ritual mealsSukkotA seven-day autumn Jewish festival of temporary booths, harvest prayers and hospitalityHoly FireA fire ceremony in Jerusalem each year, kept by Orthodox Christians before EasterMishloach manotFood parcels exchanged on Purim, so everyone has plenty for the day's festive meal

Good reading and sources

• Passover Seder on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.