Little chefs master the art of making and baking matzo bread to celebrate Passover

ROSE BAY preschoolers donned aprons and chef hats last Monday to bake matzo bread.

Passover at Hug A Bub for Chabad Youth

ROSE BAY preschoolers donned aprons and chef hats last Monday to bake matzo bread and celebrate the upcoming Passover festival.

The boys and girls at Rose Bay Hug-a-Bub childcare centre might have been more focused on playing with the uncooked dough than understanding the meaning of the matzo, but Yeshiva Centre Rabbi Elimelech Levy said it was all about creating a familiarity with Jewish traditions.

"Children are a central part of Passover, so it's important children even as young as this can get an informal feel about what it all means," he said.

"They have a hands-on involvement, they'll remember the pharaoh and Moses costumes from the performance and they're asking questions about matzo."

At the Passover meal, which this year falls on March 25, children of all ages are encouraged to ask questions to learn more about the Israelites' exodus from Egypt and understand the origins of the Jewish people.

PASSOVER AND SEDER

Passover

According to the narrative of the Exodus, the festival is named after the 10th and final plague set upon the Egyptians by God to help free the Israelites from slavery.

The plague meant the death of every Egyptian home's first-born child, but Israelites' homes were marked so that the plague would pass over them.

Seder

The ritual Passover feast marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday.

Traditions at the meal include drinking of four cups of wine, eating matzo (unleavened bread) and appreciating the freedom won by the Jews who were enslaved in Egypt more than 3000 years ago.