Here’s what you need to know about Easter, Passover and Ramadan

There are many religions in South Africa, and among the biggest are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Religion is a way various groups of people identify themselves and how they relate to the world. Most major religious holidays have some connection to the changing of seasons.

Easter

The date of Easter in Christianity is understood to be when the resurrection of Jesus is said to have taken place, and changes from year to year. This is because the Easter date is based on the lunar cycles of the Jewish calendar. The lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, which are shorter than the cycles of the sun. Easter Sunday is the high point of a period of 40 days of fasting (called Lent), starting on Ash Wednesday and commemorating the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert.

This year Easter culminates on Sunday, 9 April.

Passover

Passover is a holy Jewish holiday. Passover is celebrated with two traditional meals called

Seders, on the first two nights of the holiday. Seder translates to “order” in Hebrew because there is a ritual order that is followed in every respect, from the order of prayers and songs to the sequence of specific foods eaten. The Seder is full of symbolism, history and traditional foods. It centres on retelling the story of the Jews leaving Egypt, read from a special book called the Haggadah. The focal point of the start of Passover is the Seder plate, and on it are six ceremonial items:

Beitzah: A boiled egg, representing sacrifice; (it has also been suggested that while most foods soften when you cook them, boiled eggs get harder, representing the determination of the Jewish people.)

Charoset: A sweet mix of fruits, nuts and honey/ wine that symbolises the mortar used by Jews during their enslavement.

Karpas: A green vegetable signifying new life.

Maror and chazeret: Bitter herbs (often horseradish for maror and something like cos lettuce for chazeret) to represent the bitterness of slavery.

Zeroa: A shank bone (or a chicken neck) to remember the paschal sacrifice.

Passover lasts either seven or eight days. This year Passover starts on Wednesday, 5 April, and ends on Thursday, 13 April.

Ramadan

Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and commemorates the first revelation of the Qur ’an to Muhammad. It is during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and lasts for the whole month.

The dates of Ramadan change every year. This is because the Islamic calendar is based on the moon cycle. Muslims don’t eat or drink anything during the hours of daylight. This is called fasting. Children don’t usually fast until they are 14 years old. You should only fast if you feel you can do so safely. Muslims have a meal at sunrise called Suhoor, which means “of the dawn”. They then have a meal after sunset called Iftar, which means “break of the fast”.

This year Ramadan started on Wednesday, 22 March, and is expected to end on Thursday, 20 April.