Passover and Good Friday coincide this year -2015

What this means is that this year the Jewish celebration of the Passover Seder--which was the event that was occurring the night that Jesus celebrated the Last Supper--- will occur on the night of Good Friday this year, which is exactly one day later than when Jesus celebrated it on Holy Thursday, that is, the night before his holy death. 

Jewish law does not allow for the first evening of Passover to fall on a Thursday, so it is currently not possible for the two great Feasts to align precisely as they did at the time of Jesus, and so this year's dates are aligned as close as they can get to what actually occurred during Jesus passion and death.

Passover, or Pesach is the major Jewish festival that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, that begins with the recalling of how the Isrealites were instructed by God to kill a lamb and spread its blood on the doorposts of their homes, so that the first born male Jewish children would be "passed over" (hence the name 'Passover'), while the first born male children of the Egyptians were killed by the Angel of God as a punishment for the forced captivity of the Israelites. It always begins on the evening before the 15th day of Nisan (Jewish Calendar) and it is celebrated for 8 days. It is the most significant and most celebrated of all the Jewish holidays, and it begins with the celebration of the Seder meal.

In 2015, Passover begins on the evening of Friday, April 3, 2015 at nightfall, with the first full day of Passover being Saturday April 4th (Nisan 15), and the 8 day celebration ends after nightfall on the evening of Saturday, April 11, 2015. Accordingly, the first Seder 2015 will begin on Friday night (Shabbat), April 3, 2015. 

The Seder is a festive holiday ritual meal that is always celebrated on the first evening of Passover. It is normally performed in Jewish homes with all generations participating, and it consists of a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt, as related in the Book of Exodus (Shemot) in the Hebrew Bible. The word Seder literally means "order", and it is called this because the meal itself is done in a certain specific order that signifies the release of the ancient Jews from slavery into freedom.

Catholic tradition holds that on the evening of Holy Thursday, Jesus gathered together with His apostles to celebrate the Seder. However, on this very special night, He willed that the celebration would be much more than a commemoration of the liberation of the Israelites from earthly slavery to freedom, when the blood of lambs was spread onto doorposts so that the first born children of the Jews would be "passed over" (hence the word 'Passover') for it was on this very night that He celebrated the holy sacrifice of the first Mass by instituting the Holy Eucharist, transforming ordinary bread and wine into His most precious Body and Blood, saying to them: "Do this in memory of Me." 

On that first night of Passover HE HIMSELF was the lamb of God whose precious Blood was to be offered to take away the sins of the world, freeing us from the slavery of sin.

Jesus offers Himself as the Passover Lamb, to take away the sins of the world

First night of Passover and the full moon, which this year will also be a "blood moon"
Passover itself is considered by Jews to be the “Holiday of Redemption”, so its alignment this year with Good Friday is thus very appropriate when viewed from a Christian perspective. As stated above, Passover starts every year on the 15th day of Nissan, and since the Hebrew months are based on a lunar (moon) cycle, the first night of Passover when Jews sit down to their Passover Seder is always on the day of the full moon.

This year, much attention is being paid to Passover’s full moon since it will be the third in a series of four “Blood Moons” taking place over the Jewish festivals. This series of four Blood Moons, known as a “tetrad”, falls during the three Jewish festivals of Sukkot, commonly called the feast of Tabernacles, and also one during this upcoming Passover. Looking back in history, the tetrad of Blood Moons has often served as a harbinger of major events in Jewish history, for example n 1967 when Israel won the Six Day War, and also in 1949 when the Israeli War of Independence ended after the founding of the State of Israel the year before.

And so it is that this year we have a special confluence of the two great feasts--that of the first day of Passover and also Good Friday, along with a "blood moon" all on the same day. May God's blessing be upon Christians, Jews and upon all people of good will!
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I would just like to add the following interesting info from and email a reader kindly sent to me:
"Not only is this Holy Week special because [the first full day of] Passover Nisan 15 is on Saturday April 4th, as it was when Jesus died, but if you check the Jewish Calendar Jesus died on April 3rd of the year 33, which is also the date of Good Friday this year!  And the last time the Roman calendar, the Jewish calendar and the Western Liturgical coincided was in 1863! "