While Easter is being celebrated across the country, Jewish people are gearing up for their own festivities as Passover kicks off.
The eight-day festival begins at sundown on Friday night with the first of two Seder nights – which will see people playing host to a special service and festive meal in their homes.
The festival commemorates the exodus from Egypt, as Moses rescued the Israelites from a life of slavery under Pharaoh.
But if you want to give a special greeting to a Jewish friend at this time of year, what should you say to them?
How do you wish someone a happy Passover in Hebrew?
It’s customary to wish someone celebrating the festival a ‘chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach’.
That’s pronounced ‘CHAG PEH-sach kah-sher ve-sah-may-ach’ – and it means ‘kosher and joyous Passover’.
This makes reference to the importance of the dietary laws during the festival, which sees Jewish people eating Matzah – unleavened bread – and avoiding leavened products such as bread – for the duration.
You can also use standard festive greetings such as ‘gut yom tov’ (with ‘gut’ pronounced as in ‘put’) – which literally means ‘good day’, or ‘chag same’ach’ – which means ‘joyous festival’ and which is commonly used as a greeting during all Jewish holidays.
What are Jewish people not allowed to eat on Passover?
Jewish people will refrain from eating bread and other food products made from wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt which has risen upon contact with water, and is known as ‘chametz’.
This also means that food such as pasta, cereals, porridge and cakes and biscuits containing flour are off the menu for the week.
Instead Jewish people eat unleavened bread known as matzah, but while this is eaten as part of the Seder service it is not obligatory to eat it for the entire duration of the festival.
The festival begins on Friday night and ends on the evening of Saturday 26 April.