Passion Play

The Passion Play, also called an Easter pageant, is a dramatic genre presenting the Passion of Jesus Christ, his trial, suffering and death, traditionally performed during Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly Catholic and Evangelical traditions, and often staged as ecumenical productions. The genre has a long and complex history bound up with faith and devotion, civic pageantry, religious and political censorship, and periods of large-scale revival and historical re-enactment; many historical Passion Plays collectively blamed Jewish people for the death of Jesus, a tradition that fed antisemitism and violence against Jews.