Happy Belated Passover!

We celebrated the first two nights of Passover at Josh's mom's with a delicious seder - can't go wrong when Edie is cooking! A "seder" is a festive meal celebrated in the home and we read from the haggadah, a traditional "guidebook" for Passover. The haggadah tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt and explains some of the practices and symbols of the holiday. It's the most commonly observed Jewish holiday, I think even for those who don't normally observe other holidays. Passover is the 8 day observance commemorating the freedom and exodus of the Israelites (Jewish slaves) from Egypt during the reign of the Pharaoh Ramses II (Exodus, Ch 1-15). It refers to the fact that God "passed over" the houses of the Jews when he was slaying the firstborn of Egypt.


This is from Wikipedia: "In the story of The Exodus, the Bible tells that God inflicted ten plagues upon the Egyptians before Pharaoh would release his Hebrew slaves, with the tenth plague being the killing of firstborn sons. The Hebrews were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes, hence the term "passover". When Pharaoh freed the Hebrews, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover, no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread". Matza (unleavened bread) is the primary symbol of the holiday. This bread that is flat and unrisen is called Matzo."

Oh yeah...and that whole parting of the red seas incident happened. ;)


Edie had a beautiful seder plate - I loved the fiesta-wareness of it. I'm sure that kind of Earthenware has a name but I don't know what it is. Maybe, um, Earthenware. Anyway...each item represents something and the egg here represents mourning over the destruction of the Temple, OR according to other sources it represents spring. There is so much that goes into Passover it's hard to touch on it all here.


All are welcomed to a Passover Seder, no matter what creed, race, or religion you are. For me, it's always been a time to gather family and friends and remind myself where we came from. Each year it amazes me how forgiving and accepting and full of insight the Jewish religion is...it makes me very happy to be a part of it.