Holiday Weekend: Happy Passover

Coming from a multi-religious and multi-cultural family has many perks. There are the different types of food, the different customs, festivals and traditions. Passover (or Pesach) is a Jewish festival which commemorates the freedom from slavery of the Jews from the Egyptians. At a Passover 'Seder' (seder literally means 'order'), this story is retold around the dinner table with various symbols and traditions playing a big role in the festivities.

Some of the symbols/traditions are as follows...

#1 The Seder plate

 This contains bitter herbs (symbolising the bitterness of slavery), charoset (a sweet mixture of apple and nuts, which symbolises the mortar used by the slaves), another green vegetable (dipped in salt water, which represents tears), zeroah (a piece of meat, symbolising the Passover sacrifice that was made at the ancient temple) and a hard boiled egg (symbolising another sacrifice, and also mourning).

#2 Matzah

This large cracker like snack is delicious with charoset (see above). It commemorates the haste with which the Jews fled Egypt, they did not have time for their bread to rise and so took with them unleavened bread.

#3 The Haggadah

This is the book containing the order of the festivities, through which the story of Passover is retold. It also contains traditional songs which are sung by the guests.

#4 A giant feast

Because when do the Jews not put on a huge spread!?

There are various other traditions which we partake in on the night, including drinking 4 cups of wine (we use mini wine goblets, otherwise it would get messy), hiding a piece of matzah for the kids to find (the winner, or usually all of the kids get a prize for finding it) and a special song to be sung by the youngest child(ren).

I have wonderful memories of Passover seders from my childhood, and I continue to love the closeness and tradition that is evoked every year during this festival in our household.

 Chanelling sophistication.

Cute pink heels and my 2 minute manicure - you can't tell from afar ;-)

To come in the next blog post - Easter celebrations!