The Feast of Passover & Passover Sacrifice

The Samaritans celebrate only the seven festivals laid down in the Torah:
 
  1. Passover
  2. The  Feast of the Unleavened Bread (Matsot)
  3. The  Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot)
  4. The  Feast of the Seventh Month (Rosh Ha Chodesh Ha Sheviei)
  5. The (Feast) Day of  Atonement (Yom Kippur)
  6. The  Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth)
  7. The  Feast of Sehmini Atzeret (the Eighth day of  Holy Convocation). 
 
The first month of the year is the “Spring Month”- Nissan, and the first festival is Passover.
Some days before the middle of  Nissan, the whole community proceeds to the place of the sacrifice on Mount Gerizim the chosen place, allowing for preparations to begin days before.
 

The Passover Sacrifice:

Preparing the Oven by filling it with Olive tree stems.
Preparing the Oven by filling it with Olive tree stems.

Here alone in the world is the historic rite of the Passover of  Israel maintained.
This the only sacrifice done today. 

All are dressed in white to their girdles. At noon the kilns are ignited. The priests oversee the ceremony.

At sundown, everyone gathers around the altars. The sheep are watched over by the children.

The children watch the sheep
The children watch the sheep

The High Priest begins the prayer with all the crowd joining in. The singing of a mercy liturgy fills the air.

 

 

Finally, with the sundown the High Priest standing on the high stone delivers the sentence, “And all Israel crowd will slaughter it”.

The Burning Ovens
The Burning Ovens

 

The sheep’s skins are taken off, stomachs and kidneys are burned on the altar. The sheep are skewered and placed in the kilns pits.

The Priests are leading the Ceremony
The Priests are leading the Ceremony

 

After everyone finished, to clean their ships from the skins and other forbidden parts, they gather around the ovens, and put the sheep inside, for about three hours. The ovens are covered by muddy sand.

At midnight, everyone gathers around the altars again, the High Priest gives the order and the skewers are uncovered. 

The Slaughtering moment. The blood must be squirt on the walls of the altar.
The Slaughtering moment. The blood must be squirt on the walls of the altar.

 

Removing the ship Skins.
Removing the ship’s Skins.

Every family collects the share of the Passover Sacrifice in a big pail. The meat is eaten quickly, mails and females, boys and girls. Finally before mourning the remainder of the meat is gathered together and burnt on the altar accompanied by singing and dancing.  At 3:00 AM all the mails of the community gather again, for a prayer at the synagogue. 

Waiting around the ovens to the command of the high priests to insert it in.
Waiting around the ovens to the command of the high priest to insert it in.
Covering the Ovens with muddy sand
Covering the Ovens with muddy sand

The Song of “Ambbarak Hu Bitted ad Yaacob” (Blessed will be the lineage of our forefather Jacob) , sung by the Israelite Samaritans, right after taking the ships out of the ovens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x10su10lpvs