By Ellen Cameron
Staff Writer

Blood. Frogs. Lice. Flies. Animal death. Boils. Hail. Locusts. Darkness. Death of a firstborn.

These aren’t the lyrics to a bad rap song, but rather, the a list of the Ten Plagues of Egypt as reported in the Torah, the Jewish holy book that is roughly equivalent to the Christian Old Testament of The Bible. These ten plagues were documented as protests against the Pharaoh in Egypt. Finally, he allowed the Hebrews to be free, led by Moses across the Red Sea. Legend says that they left in such a hurry, they couldn’t wait for the bread to rise.

This unleavened bread is now a staple of Passover, a celebration of the liberation of the Hebrews, and derives its name from the tenth plague, in which the blood of a spring lamb above the door of a house was a sign for the spirit of death to “pass over” the home and spare the first born.

Passover is now celebrated with special prayers and by abstaining from the consumption of all bread by matza, a special unleavened bread that is rather cracker-like. This celebration was notably documented in an earlier episode of the popular Nickelodeon show Rugrats, as Tommy Pickles and his family were Jewish.

Passover this year began on March 29th on Sundown and ended on April 5. It follows the Gregorian calendar.

For more information about Passover, click here.