Passover Traditions?

[GoldenDragon]

Shalom everyone, I'm aware that Passover/Pesach is quickly approaching and I've been curious about how it is celebrated. I've never been quite sure of the traditions or if I got them quite right, and instead of Googling or Wikipedian(well along with it don't quite trust them too much however heh) about it I'd thought I'd ask the actual community. I know Passover is celebrated in remembrance of the ancient Israelites marking their houses so that the angel of death would pass over them on its way to kill of every first born in Egypt.
I'm wondering how it is celebrated today.
What kind of traditions are celebrate/play an important part of Passover?How is it celebrated today?
How imporant of a holiday is it?
Is it celebrated differently in Israel than in the USA ?If so how differently?
How long does it last? I had heard that the holiday lasted 14 days is that right or is it shorter than that?
Are there any special songs/music for Passover?
Any special greetings on this holiday?

I was just plain curious,plus I realized that I didn't know much about how Passover is celebrated and wanted to learn about it.
I appreciate you sharing your traditions and wish you a Blessed Pesach.

 

[zenzero]

Friend,
Though having no connection with traditionals or Judaism or this passover custom, still cannot stop from writing the understanding about customs in general.
Most people involve in customs without an understanding. It is mostly done out of a mechanical habit living in society living amost similar minded people. Each one carries on doing it without understanding as tio its relevance in todays knowledge based more global society.
Maybe this will be more diffcicult to understand that all beliefs comes out of the mind and that very mind is the satan or darkness which one has to get rid of or rather whcih gets ridden of in its own when the person starts living in the garden of eden which though he lives there he does not realises that. This simple understanding makes one free from all these rituals/ceremonies etc.
Love & rgds

 

[standing_on_one_foot]

For starters, it's not a celebration of marking the doors so the Angel of Death passes over, although that's where the English name comes from. What it's really about is the Exodus from Egypt, and a celebration of freedom and redemption from slavery. We don't celebrate what happened to the Egyptians. Since you ask about traditions, there's one where you list to plagues and remove wine from your cup with each plague, to symbolize, if you will, the reduction of joy for freedom because of the cost it came at. There's more to it than that (since in Judaism, you generally try to cram as much symbolism as you can into anything), but that's an important part of it.

Anyhoo. Pesach lasts for a week, actually, not two weeks. You don't eat any leavened bread (or various other things, really, but it all comes back to grain and the bread). People gather for a ritual dinner called a seder. It's got about a billion customs right there in that. This site gives a good overview: http://www.jewishla.org/html/passoverholiday.htm

By the by, zenzero, I feel it's a bit unfair to accuse us of not understanding the customs. Certainly it can come to that, but one of the customs of Pesach is basically explaining the customs of Pesach. We don't particularly want to be freed from our traditions, either.