Why Spring Cleaning Around Passover?

The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the day after Passover and lasts for seven days. In the period before the Passover, every family will clean their home in accordance to the Biblical instruction they have received to remove all the sourdough from their homes. This cleaning is a very meticulous search for the smallest crumb that might be hidden somewhere in a corner of the house. The removal of that sourdough was commanded by God, but is in essence an image of an inner quest whether there is still sourdough (sin) in our lives, even if we have already experienced the Passover feast of deliverance from slavery and the cleansing of sins in our lives. God liberates and forgives, and the people act according to His commandment by taking the removal of sin very seriously. They do this because they are aware of their covenant relationship with the holy Creator.

Within Western cultures, especially older people remember that they used to do a big Spring cleaning: prior to Easter, all furniture was placed outside to be aired, the curtains were washed and everything was dusted and cleaned. Think about it, a complete housecleaning before Easter is perhaps not such a bad idea after all. But how much more important is the cleaning of our spiritual home, our lives! Such a cleaning is not only meant to be done at Easter, but it surely is connected with it.