Passover is an eight day holiday from the Torah. It marks the birth of the Jews as a people, their emergence as an unparalleled nation, devoted to G-d's will. There are three names for Passover...

Zman Chairuseinu - The time of our freedom. Over 3000 years ago the children of Israel were liberated from Egyptian slavery. Led by Moses, the Jewish people were brought out by G-d from the lowest depths of slavery to the highest peak - receiving the Torah.

Pesach - Passover. The Hebrew Pesach means 'to jump'. The Al-mighty "jumped" over the houses of the Jews and spared them the plagues, expecially the tenth when the first born in every Egyptian home died.

Also, the Korban Pesach (Pesach Offering) was slaughtered in the Temple on the 14th of Nissan and eaten on the night of the 15th.

Chag HaMatzos - the festival of Matzah.

The Berditchever explains why the Torah calls the holiday "The festival of Matzah" but we commonly call it Passover. In the Talmud (Berachot) it says that both G-d and the Jews pray with Tefillin (phylacteries). Inside the Jew's tefillin is written "Hear o Israel, the L-rd is G-d, the L-rd is One." In G-d's tefillin it is written "And who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the world."

In this case, too, there is G-d's perspective and our perspective. G-d refers to Passover as the festival of Matzah to praise the Jewish people, who hurried so much their dough did not rise and their bread became matzah. In Prophet Yirmiah it states "I remember your lovingkindness in your youth, going after Me in the wilderness (with no food for the way)." The Jewish people call the festival Pesach to commemorate G-d's praise Who stepped over the houses of the Jewish people, saving them from the Angel of Death.

- Taken from Blumenkrantz' The Laws of Pesach Introduction