Around the first day of Passover, the UK’s Prime Minister of the United Kingdom traditionally releases a Passover message. Primarily a Jewish celebration, Passover is not a British holiday, but with just under 300,000 people practising the Jewish faith, the UK is believed to have the fifth largest Jewish population in the world, centred largely in and around London, Manchester and Leeds.

Having not long celebrated Purim, another important Jewish festival looms:Passover.

Passover in the UK traditionally involves a number of events, symbolising different aspects of events surrounding the Israelites from slavery and their exodus from Egypt. This year (2023) it’s being celebrated celebrated April 5-13.

For those of us who don’t traditionally celebrate Passover, it’;s a time when Jewish people are forbidden to eat, drink, or own ‘chametz’ (otherwise known as ‘chometz’). This is food from wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt which are grains that begin to ferment and rise when they come into contact with water. They don’t, however, go hungry: on the first couple days of Passover, they celebrate a Seder, a ceremonial meal held with family and friends - or even within communities - with accompanying readings and rituals.

‍

‍

On the Seder plate will be: ‘Maror’ and ‘Chazeret’ (bitter herbs symbolising the bitterness of slavery; ‘Charoset’, a sweet, brown mix representing bricks and mortar used by slaves to build structures in Egypt; ‘Karpas’, vegetables representing hope and renewal; ‘Zeroah’, lamb meat, symbolising the sacrifice of the lamb whose blood was painted on the doors of Israelite slaves houses so that God would pass over that house during the plague; and ‘Beitzah’, a roasted egg signifying festival sacrifice, the circle of life and a symbol of mourning; and three matzos (unleavened bread). It’s traditional to dip the vegetables in salt water, which represents the shedding of tears.

‍

How storage can help

To avoid ‘chametz’, Jewish people thoroughly clean their homes and living spaces. This is preparation for a holiday that celebrates freedom, not one that recreates slavery, so this doesn’t have to be onerous.

However, this celebration happens in Spring, so many families choose to combine the cleaning with a Spring Clean. This approach also means that guests sit down to their Passover Seder in a clean, shiny home.

We’ve seen suggestions that to keep life simple, celebrants should buy everything new that they can, and keep it for Passover from year to year (towels, tablecloths and table wear, clothes, toys, and more). This means there is less to clean beforehand and less chance that anything used for the Passover celebrations have come into contact with anything ‘chametz’.

‍

‍

Everything else can be temporarily removed into storage. (easyStorage offers a storage solution that even collects and delivers back your belongings.) And whilst packing everything up beforehand, there’s a fabulous opportunity to declutter. If you need any hints and tips for this, or for packing things away safely, easyStorage has an entire channel dedicated to decluttering and packing articles.

This seems like a great solution to us.  After Passover, all of those special Passover belongings can be cleaned and dried and go back into storage. (You might even find yourself wanting to join the growing ranks of Lifestyle Storers - https://www.easystorage.com/blog/the-rise-of-the-lifestyle-storer. )

Storage aside, may we take this opportunity to wish everyone, including our own Jewish colleagues and customers, a happy Passover: Chag Sameach.