A couple weeks ago I snagged an invitation to a genuine Passover Seder. Not the version my family does (which is good but far from thorough when it comes to all the Jewish traditions) or Christian-ized versions which some churches offer. It was an authentic sit down dinner with a Jewish family (friends of my sister's) and their 25 closest friends :-) It was SO MUCH FUN!
There was culture galore (yarmulke's, yiddish, Jewish food), lots of new learning, a ton of fascinating symbolism, a lot of inappropriateness and by the end, a lot of hilarious, drunk Jewish people :-) They went through almost the entire Haggadah (and ironically skipped the only part my family really focuses on-the 4 questions). The host also had created a supplemental 20 page booklet that he handed out to everyone! Some of it had interesting new traditions like instead of leaving a glass of wine for Elijah only, also leaving a glass of water for Miriam to honor her for her heroism in saving Moses and to honor Biblical women in general.
Other things in the booklet were cartoons and poems and things like the lyrics to "the 10 plagues" to the tune of "Take me out to the ball game!" HILARIOUS. They also had all the classic foods (charoset, matzoh, horseradish, parsley, chopped liver, matzoh ball soup etc.) to eat at different junctures in the 4 hour dinner when they corresponded to certain parts of the Passover story. They were also relatively strict about the FOUR glasses of wine that are mandated throughout the ceremony.
Ever since going, I've been thinking about how to either score an invitation to Miss Shirley's house again next year for the whole family or how to start doing a more thorough Seder with my own family. It was such a great experience on the spiritual level and the fun level!
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| Chocolate bugs to represent the plagues and 10 drops of wine that each person took out of their glasses to represent losing some of the joy of life (wine) in each of the plagues. |
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| You dip parsley (or another bitter herb) into salt water and then eat it. It's NASTY, which is the point since it goes along with readings about the bitterness of slavery the Jews faced in Egypt. |
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| A little glimpse of the 25 people at 3 tables in a relatively small living room! The "closeness" made it an even more fun adventure. |
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| My favorite Passover food (I make it all year long)! Matzoh Ball Soup! It was nice to have something familiar at this new experience too :-) |
Sounds great! I love matzoh ball soup - need to learn to make it.
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