Yesterday Princess and I were discussing how much fun it would be to learn about the Passover at Family Home Evening. Although I know a little about it, I have never studied the tradition before and certainly never participated in one. The kids have done it several times at church and in seminary so they had the basics down. Unfortunately, Princess had school all day and then dance, so she wasn't able to help me plan anything.
But I shouldn't have worried... Drama Queen to the rescue!She was in Idaho all weekend with friends, and when I mentioned my disappointment, she jumped right in and owned the project. She and Baby Doll did all the shopping, including several stores to find real Matzah. Once she got her lamb roasting, she was off and running and getting everything together.
I was in and out of the house all day with various errands including dance and ball practice. When I finally picked up my last fare (I shouldn't call it that, I rarely get paid), and drove home, it was almost 8:00. Our Passover was scheduled for 8:10 when Princess and Crafty arrived home from dance.
Bossy's family showed up right after that and eventually Beauty and The Beast joined us. As I approached the house, I saw red construction paper hanging on the doorframe and I knew they were ready. As it turned out, that was Curly's idea...we couldn't possibly have a Passover meal without using something for the lamb's blood.
I didn't know that this meal is often taken lounging because that signifies free people. In fact, everything was symbolic of something! We started with a glass of apple juice (there's no wining/whining allowed in our house ;) and then we all washed our hands.Drama Queen passed around celery for sweet herbs, romaine dipped in salt water for the bitter herbs and roasted eggs. (Who knew you could actually roast an egg!?) We had more juice and Matzah bread. As a general rule, I love bread, but it wasn't my favorite although some of the kids thought it was wonderful.
To help the little ones understand the significance of the Passover, we put on some clips from the Prince of Egypt movie while Drama Queen served the roasted lamb, potatoes and carrots, and an amazing salad with apples and nuts. For dessert, she had made rolled pastries with raisins, apricot jam, and cinnamon. They were SOO good!We finished our lesson with a conference talk from President Howard W. Hunter about the significance of the Passover in our Christian faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We definitely have ancestors who lived and celebrated this great event for hundreds and thousands of years. I was so grateful to understand it better.
It's starting to feel like a new family tradition to begin our celebration of the Easter week.
This is an awesome idea! I'd like to know more about it sometime!
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Peace to you and your family this Passover, we are going to a seder near our home..I was not raised Jewish but my hubs of 41 years and our only child go for the religious observances, we feel God is in each person..Easter we serve food to people who work over 60 hours at low paying jobs and by the 9th of each month have no food for themselves, they feed their wives and husbands but the primary person employed is starving, it is our delight to do so, we are both retired and I buy food and necessities for the food place so many can actually live as the EBT card doesn't allow health and beauty items, really, it is toilet paper, soaps, deodorants, etc. necessities to keep a job in our society..These are mainly people who work so long and hard they have no time to really even shop much lest alone for food for their body and minds, we are called by our prinicpals of the Lord both of us, I have done this most of my life and also advocated and helped at the domestic violence place closely guarded by the sheriffs office, no person should be hit or hurt, my hubs holds the tiny babies there and we bring goodies at the holidays as most have fled and their families abandoned them..sad to see..Your family is wonderful, I pray daily for them and you, plus others to have a family and faith such as you and yours have. the Holidays to me are about loving human beings as the Lord loved us, ciao!
ReplyDeleteWow! That is so great that you guys took the time to celebrate Passover! I need to learn more about it. Life has been crazy lately so forgive me for commenting on a ton of posts all at once!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love that you had a Passover dinner celebration. Maybe I will try something like that with one of our families next year. I think it is a story that we should know more about in the church. Thanks for the link to the talk.
ReplyDeleteSending hugs your way!
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ReplyDeleteThe meal of Passover is only a very small piece of the Passover ceremony. Passover has many components, the most important of which is the reading of scripture. I appreciate your desire to learn about another clutlure and religion but encourage you to really look at the true meaning of the Passover meal. If you're interested in learning about the true meaning, I would not watch a Mormon's interpretation of what Passover is because that interpretation is significantly different than what you would find if you opened the book of Passover scripture and read it, and learned about why the Jewish people still follow this tradition. Our Passover meals start at sundown and last until sunrise and are filled with laughter, sorrow, and much scripture reading, tradition, and a deep connection with who we are as a people. Understanding that is not something that can be accurately relayed by someone who hasn't gone through this. It's comparable to a rabbi teaching his congregants about the book of Mormon from the rabbi's perspective but him calling his perspective fact.
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