Passover! Fo

Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Passover! Fo

Passover!

For those who don't know, Passover is a Jewish holiday celebrating the release of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt a long, long time ago. We have a seder on the first night (this year, that was last night) where we tell the story and eat special foods, including matzah (flat cracker to symbolize how the Israelites fled Egypt so quickly they didn't have time to let bread rise, so they put the dough on their backs and let the sun bake it into matzah) and charoset (paste of fruits and nuts to symbolize the mortar the Israelites had to put in the brick walls they built as slaves).

For the next eight days, we eat no leavened bread (see the description for matzah) and instead a whole lot of matzah! I actually love matzah, but most of my Jewish friends and family get veeeery tired of it by the end of Passover.

Does anyone else here celebrate Passover? What's your favorite thing to do with matzah? And... matzah ball soup or gefilte fish?

(yes, matzah pizza, gefilte fish all the way!) 

submitted by Kitten, age Pondering
(April 20, 2019 - 12:47 pm)

My family’s not Jewish, so we don’t usually officially celebrate Passover, but we actually have done seders before! They’re pretty cool. We haven’t done many since I was really little, though, so I can’t remember if we ever had real matzah or not. 

submitted by Leeli
(April 21, 2019 - 7:47 am)
submitted by a top of faith
(April 21, 2019 - 10:48 am)

I'm not Jewish, but I do celebrate passover with my family and friends. We have a seder meal every year and eat matzah ball soup! This year two of our non-religious friends came over and did it with us! It was really fun. 

submitted by Esile
(April 21, 2019 - 11:18 am)

I'm Jewish! We're not usually all that strict about the no-leavened-bread thing, though. My family has a seder every year, and my mom's an amazing cook so the food is always great. I actually really like matzah (especially chocolate-covered matzah), and charoset is sooo good. I'm not a gefilte fish fan, though. :P

submitted by Abigail, age Old enough, Inside my head
(April 21, 2019 - 3:19 pm)

My grandfather makes gefilte fish by hand and it is SO good. If you've only had the kind from a jar I can understand why you're not a fan. Most people don't make it anymore because it's so much work. If you ever get the chance, try homemade gefilte fish.  

submitted by Cockleburr
(April 22, 2019 - 11:10 am)

We had both seders at my house this year, which was fun but a LOT of work. I have made so much charosets. (FOURTEEN apples worth!) 

Does anyone remember the stop motion animation I was never able to post? If you don't recall, it was my first senior project. I lead a seder for my entire class several days before Pesach started as my second senior project. I had to plan it out, cook matzo ball soup, make charosets, and bring all the supplies for a fourty person seder! It was a ton of work, but it was a successful event! Everyone learned a lot, tried new food, and had a good time! I didn't have haggadahs, but I made a power point for people to follow along. To accomidate food allergies I made the charosets with sunflower seeds instead of walnuts and brought gluten free crackers for those who can't eat matza. Many of my classmates had never tried horseradish before, or eaten plain parsely dipped in salt water, which I'm sure was interesting for them. Instead of telling over the story as is traditional, I talked about Passover and Seders in general, explaining what it is and how seders have developed throughout history. I had the youngest in the class read the four questions in English. I also hid the afikomen for my classmates to find! It was a really amazing expirience and I was more organized than my last senior project.

This may have been helped by the fact that I've watched my mother orchestrate seders and I knew what I needed to do. Anyway it was super cool and I'm really happy I got to help other people understand Judaism. I think it's really important that we try to come together to celebrate and understand our different cultures, particularly nowadays. 

submitted by Cockleburr
(April 22, 2019 - 11:03 am)

Did you know there's gluten free matzah? It isn't technically matzah (the box says 'not a replacement for matzah at the seder'), but my family uses it anyway. :) It's actually not as bad as you might think, though it's really crumbly and doesn't make good matzah stuffing or anything.

It's really cool that you did a seder for your class! I wonder what my class would think if I did that... many of them are Jewish, though, so it might be less of a big deal for some of them. 

submitted by Kitten, Pondering
(April 22, 2019 - 6:31 pm)

I know there's gluten free matza (two of my cousins are allergic), but I couldn't find any. I think you have to live in New York or some place with a big Jewish community to find it, or else order it online and I didn't have enough time to do that.

submitted by Cockleburr
(April 22, 2019 - 7:19 pm)

That's a super cool idea for a senior project! I've always wanted to lead a seder, which is basically what you did, it seems like. Also, like Kitten said, there's gluten free matzah and it tastes a lot better than the real thing, in my opinion. But I eat the real one because I'm not gluten-sensitive and it's the "bread of our affliction", so it shouldn't taste especially good.

submitted by Applejaguar, Wisteria
(April 22, 2019 - 9:47 pm)

My family is not religious (though we do celebrate Christmas/Easter, in a non-religious way), but last year we were invited by friends to go to their Seder and it was really cool. I was kind of hoping to go again this year but they don’t normally host it at their house and this year they went to their family’s house. I think it’s really cool to learn more about different aspects of people’s culture.

submitted by The Riddler
(April 22, 2019 - 9:53 pm)

I'm Jewish, and I celebrate Passover! Favorite matzah thing... hmm, probably chocolate covered matzah. I think plain matzah tastes like cardboard, so the chocolate makes it more edible. :)

I haven't actually tried gefilte fish. But I really like matzah ball soup, so I'll have to go with that.

<geeu>

Autumn likes gefilte fish, I guess. 

submitted by Summer, age pi, Nowhere at all
(April 22, 2019 - 10:19 pm)

@Admins, I posted a comment here yesterday and it never showed up. Maybe it was a glitch or something??

I'm Jewish too! We hosted both Seders at our house and had relatives and friends over for them. It was really nice. I actually really like matzah, but not the gefilte fish. And definately matzah ball soup. 

@Cockleburr, that sounds really cool for your project! That sounds really interesting to do if you've never had Passover before.  

Feel free to resubmit anything you think may have been lost in cyberspace.

Admin

submitted by Dandelion
(April 23, 2019 - 6:39 pm)

We celebrate Passover. I love it a TON, but NOT Matzah Pizza. *shudder*. This year we found a recipe for unbread bread! Like bread but not chametz. It was super cool, and we made awesome pizza. I also don't like matzah, but the sederim are AWESOME! Do you know the song Echad Mi Yodeyah? Like, Who knows One? We sing it in English and it is hilarious. Don't like matzah balls in my soup, but I do like gefilte fish! And Cholent. Yum. My friends and I also think it's hilarious that karpas is supposed to symbolize the tears of the Israelites, and we love how it tastes so we literally eat as many as we can. So sad. And so sad that it's over! Back to school, but next week my grade is going to Washington D.C.! Yay!

submitted by Twirlgirl, age 13, My Imaginary Dance Studio
(April 28, 2019 - 5:48 pm)