Monday, April 22, 2024

Passover


Elijah the Prophet, from a 16th century Haggadah. The traditional belief is that Elijah will herald the coming of the Messiah.
To welcome Elijah a cup of wine is left on the Seder table -- "Elijah's cup" -- and near the end of the
ritual, someone opens the door, inviting him in, all hoping that his arrival will bring peace to mankind.
 
From the Haggadah: “This is the promise — not only once did they arise to destroy us, rather in every generation they rise to destroy us. But the Holy One Blessed Be He will save us from their hands.”

This evening, April 22, is the first Seder, the traditional meal that celebrates the beginning of Passover. The Passover holiday is celebrated mainly in people’s homes, though there are sometimes communal meals as well, especially for those who are separated from their families such as students who live away from home. The “Haggadah” is the book of rituals, readings, and prayers that is used for the service that accompanies the meal. I suspect that the above quotation is on a lot of people’s minds this year, along with the irony of a wish for a peaceful world.

Although not religiously observant, we usually celebrate Passover in our home or with family or friends. I’ve written about it many times. Because we had a family visit last week, we ate Passover food early, so here are some pictures illustrating traditional foods that we enjoyed ahead of time.

“Conundrum” is a great name for a wine at Passover.

Wine is one of the traditional items on the Passover table. During the ceremony, all participants drink four glasses of wine at specific times as the Haggadah requires. The start of the ritual is the reading of The Four Questions, asking “Why is this night different from all other nights,” and beginning the explanation of the celebration of the Exodus from Egypt as presented in the Biblical book of Exodus. Since a conundrum is a puzzling question I thought the wine was very aptly named. (Note: for those who observe the kosher dietary laws, this is not kosher wine.)


Two foods that are part of the ritual: Matzo, the unleavened bread eaten as the Israelites fled Egypt,
and Charoset, a combination of grated apples and nuts, representing the mortar that the enslaved Israelites used to build the Pyramids.


Our table setting for our pre-Seder meal.

Symbolic foods: egg, parsley, horseradish, wine.

Another food that’s not required but is traditional: matzo ball soup.

Gefilte fish is not part of the Haggadah ritual, but it’s a key dish in many people’s Passover meal.

Recipes using dried fruit such as prunes are a Passover tradition.



Blog post and photos © 2024 mae sander

20 comments:

  1. God bless you cousin 🙏🏽 Aloha

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had a friend who once told me about the Passover Seder. I think it's a fascinating meal, and I'm glad you were able to have it with family. Have a great T day Mae. hugs-Erika

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is really interesting to see! Thank you for sharing it.
    We haven't much religion in our lives these days.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting. It would be a dilemma for me because I get sick from wine. I can’t even eat grapes!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great you celebrate the tradition, even if or because on your own rules - after all life changes... Looks yummy, too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I remember the first time I had gefilte fish. It was in a restaurant in MO where I stopped before a dear friend's mother's funeral.

    I am glad you shared these rituals with us because much of this is new to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the name of the wine, but I'm not really a wine drinker. Thanks for sharing Seder and the wine with us for T this Tuesday, dear Mae.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your Passover food look very delicious. I went to a friend to celebrate yesterday, being alone is not eally fun for a festive meal. Pessach Kasher ve Sameach!
    Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fabulous and it looks like a lovely meal to celebrate the passover ☺️. Wishing you a Happy T Tuesday! Hugs, Jo x

    ReplyDelete
  9. A wonderful Passover. All of the food looks absolutely wonderful. Thank you for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The ceremony about hoping for peace in this world the way it is right now makes me want to cry -- it seems like with current events it would be hard to feel like it was a celebratory time. Even with the special food bringing back good memories and being together with family and friends. .... I would like to try those foods which would all be new to me. I've enjoyed reading the NYT featured recipes featuring some of those traditional foods and found one or two that I felt I might be able to attempt.

    ReplyDelete
  11. How wonderful that you were able to celebrate the Passover Seder with a family member. (That in itself is a celebration). The matzos take me back to my childhood. My mum would buy them sometimes. Just because.
    I was fortunate that I was invited last year to a meal by Yonath, an Israeli friend. (We didn't have gefilte fish though.) The chicken with prunes looks absolutely delicious.
    Thanks for sharing your lovely, and very special, meal.
    Lisca

    ReplyDelete
  12. My cousin was busy making charoset (and macarons) to take to their Passover dinner. It sounded delicious! (Your wine looks like a good one!)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you for explaining each part of the Passover meal. I feel like I go back through the centuries, each element resonating through all the many people through time who have done the same and with the symbolism of each part.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I enjoyed learning about Passover and the traditional foods. Conundrum sounds like a perfect name for the wine. Happy T Day

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you you for sharing your Passover dinner with us. Happy T Day.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Neat, thanks for sharing your delicious Passover meal

    ReplyDelete
  17. Great post, leant a lot. Fabulous and very different food! Thanks for your visit! Always chears me up! Have a great week! Happy late T day!
    ((Lyn))

    ReplyDelete
  18. Happy Passover Mae. Looks like a wonderful celebration with many traditional foods. Our Sephardic food looks somewhat different . Our Charoset is a paste made from soaking dates and raisins. We don't eat gefilte fish. We do eat rice and stuff many vegetables including grape leaves. Our seder is very much like what you describe just different foods. We also had a wonderful time with a large family celebration.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness; we had a big day called the Memorial around the time of Passover. No particular foods but just a day of remembrance and an evening at the Kingdom Hall!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting. Please include a link to your current blog so that I can read your blog and share more of what you are thinking. Your google-blog-ID may not link to a blog hosted at another site, so please let me know who you REALLY are!