Passover Seder 2012

My hubby and I celebrated Passover Seder at home this year.  Last year we went to an event held by the temple, which was my first seder.  It was a learning experience for me, for sure.  And I’m still learning!  We did it last night because tonight we have a dinner to go to.

I didn’t expect to go all out this year but it was nice to see the grocery stores with their table display of foods for seder.  Trust me, it is hard to get any kind of Jewish food here in Hawaii.  And it’s only Passover where I find them displaying any type of Jewish delicacies.  And because my hubby is Jewish, I wanted him to have something to celebrate seder.  So I bought him a box of matzah which is unleavened bread, like huge crackers basically.  When he saw what I bought he asked me how many boxes I bought.  LOL…I said one.  He said buy more.  I did.  But I also mentioned they had Matzo Ball soup and Potato Pancake and he got excited.  So I ended up buying all of it, plus gefilte fish and grape juice because I can’t do wine right now.

I had never made matzo ball soup or potato pancakes so thank goodness they came in a box with instructions!  Last night as Josh was at tennis practice down the road, I started on our seder dinner.

Ready to cook!

I also had to prepare the seder plate which includes some specific items.  The plate contains foods that symbolize the Exodus of Jews from Egypt.  The story is the focus of the seder meal.

I am Catholic.  Born and raised Catholic although I’m not much of a practicing Catholic since a couple years now.  When I was younger, I LOVED the story of Moses and the Exodus.  My sister and I had a picture bible, like a huge comic book, that we both loved and slept with for the longest time.  I would read that picture bible and loved the story of Moses.  I was afraid of the plagues, amazed at the burning bush and the ten commandments…and then the Red Sea parting?  I was amazed.  Josh was surprised I knew the story and I reminded him about the movie The Ten Commandments and then the animation The Prince of Egypt.  And I said, as a Catholic, yes we are schooled in the Old Testament too, not only the new.

That’s why I enjoy seder.  I don’t enjoy the seder plate – but as Josh says, that’s the point.  It is to remind us about the bitterness and harshness of slavery.  It’s a very meaningful celebration and so much so to Josh and his heritage.  Come on, even Bob Marley made a song about it.  “Exodus!  Movement of Jah people!”

As far as my cooking goes – I just googled Seder Plate and figured out what to place on the plate.  While I prepared that I started cooking the rest of the meal.

Preparing a Seder plate.

 

Soup in one pot, a hard-boiled egg in the other.

Soup looking good!

Josh came home after tennis and I saw the look on his face.  He’s always so touched when I embrace his culture.  But hey he lives in Hawaii now, he’s definitely embraced MINE.  And my filipino culture can get pretty scary if you don’t like certain foods yet he loves all my family parties.  This is marriage.  This is respect and this is compromise.  This is also love.

And he was beaming with it, watching his filipino catholic wife making him a Jewish meal.  LOL…he’s too cute.  I can only imagine how much he misses home and his traditions.  It’s the least I can do.  Have I ever told y’all how he’s such a great guy? 🙂

So I prepared the table to get ready for our seder meal.

Ready!

He led us through the seder book and said the prayers and told the stories.  I asked the four questions and he answered all but one.  Okay, so it wasn’t perfect but we have all our lives to get better at having Passover Seder in our home.  He even hid part of a matza for the Afikomen (which usually children go out to find – it’s like hide and seek).  Crazy guy made our dogs find the afikomen and Sky was so eager that she even ate a piece of that matzah before he got it away from her.  Smart honey, smart.  It was funny.

So at the end of the meal, we ended the seder by inviting the prophet Elijah to come into the home.  Josh actually cracked the front door open earlier which later at the end of the meal did open even more…and we both turned to each other and said, he’s here!  We were like kids!  But I rubbed my womb because we have a little Elijah growing in me.  I think the name will be quite fitting for him 🙂

It was a successful night and I think Josh was happy.  He talked about soon sharing this tradition and story with his own son.  He remembers how his dad told him the stories as a child and it’s memories like that which makes traditions important.

We will be raising our son with both traditions though, hey Jesus was a jew too right?  So we’ll do Passover Seder and then go easter egg hunting 🙂  Sounds like a plan!  Can’t wait and hopefully by then I’ll prefect my seder meal cooking 🙂

Enjoy your Easter weekend and thank you always for reading!