Pessah or Passover Sedar is the Jewish Festival of Freedom. It is celebrated to mark the Exodus or the redemption of the Jews from Egypt and is observed for eight days. It symbolizes the time they took to move away from the land that had enslaved them, and cross the Red Sea. Its importance as a Spring festival is also significant, which in Israel coincided with harvest time.
The Jews showed their gratitude by cutting a sprig of barley and offering it at the Temple. On the day of Pessah, they eat unleavened bread (or matzah in Hebrew), which is considered to be a symbol of slavery as well as freedom. As slaves earlier, they did not have time to add leavening agents to the dough or wait for their bread to rise, before baking it. At the time of liberation too, they did not enjoy that privilege. In memory of those trying times, even Jews of today eat unleavened bread on Pessah. The day previous to Pessah is set apart for spring cleaning when all old food items containing leavening agents are removed. Special dishes are made for the feast.
However, it is the Sedar Plate that takes the pride of place because it contains food items that are rich in symbolic meaning. There are three matzot (unleavened bread, representing the three ancient families of Israel – the Priests, the Levites, and the Israelites – that were led to liberty, that will be blessed, and later broken and shared among the members of the family), and other items that are not eaten like roasted shank bone (symbolic of the Passover lamb), an egg (symbolic of spring and new birth), parsley, saltwater, lettuce (all symbolic of the bitter and tearful experiences in Egypt), and a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine (symbolic of the mortar they used as slaves to construct Egyptian buildings).
Cups of wine are placed beside each plate, into which wine is poured four times and emptied each time to stand for the four promises made by God regarding their deliverance. The fifth promise is one of redeeming the entire humankind through the agency of Prophet Elijah. A cup of wine is placed for him at the centre of the table and is not drunk from. The belief is that the Jews wait for the Prophet for the fulfillment of the fifth promise.