Saturday, April 19, 2008

Some Nights Are Not Like All Other Nights....

Tonight is Passover, a traditionally Jewish holiday celebrated by having a Seder in one's home on the first and 2nd night. The reason I say traditionally Jewish is that nowadays many non-Jewish people attend Seders and some Churches are having them too. There are many traditions and specific moments to having a passover Seder. One is the asking of the four questions, normally by the youngest child able to recite them. One of the four questions is "Why is this night different from all other nights?" This is to highlight that this meal is different in many ways from other meals eaten throughout the year.

Well this year will be different at our house for sure. We normally have a large Seder sometimes as many as 22 people. We rent tables, chairs, napkins and tablecloths and Dena cooks for days. Usually by the time people start showing up we are so exhausted its all we can do to run the Seder. Tonight we will have only 8, oops, 7, one cancelled. Dena's parents aren't coming because of her dad's shoulder surgery so we decided to keep it small. It's 5:00p the night of the Seder and I actually have time to blog. Amazing. We're usually stressed out too. Not this year. It's kind of nice being all calm and relaxed. I love it!

The traditional passover meal consists of celery dipped in salt water to signify tears, maror a mixture of nuts and dried fruits to signify mortar, matzah (unleavened bread), four cups of wine (my favourite), beef brisket (I think the brisket is a family tradition), matzah ball soup, hard boiled egg (I think this one is for the circle of life), gefilte fish (yuck), horseradish, and some token vegetable. I LOVE seders. They have lots of yummy food and I just love the tradition.

Happy Pesach to all.

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