My First Passover

Last night I had another traditional American experience - I participated in a Passover Seder dinner with my Jewish friends.

Before dinner we had to do a few ceremonial things. Sean lent me a kippah and we sat around the table to hear explanations of why the various things were eaten. I forget why we ate parsely dipped in salty water; something to do with tears, I think. The bread has to be unleavened because the Hebrews were in such a hurry to leave. I thought matzo would be like pita but it's more like a big cracker. Before the actual dinner we had to eat a matzo sandwich with horseradish and another with charoset, a mixture of diced apples and dates in wine. (For some reason they were refering to the horseradish as a "bitter 'erb", even though it's clearly a root, not a herb.)

The dinner itself was turkey, not Paschal lamb, it being America and all. It was pretty good, latkes with applesauce make an interesting side dish.

There were a few songs in English and various chants in Hebrew (my throat's quite clear now, thanks for asking) between which we had to drink four cups of wine. Unfortunately it had to be kosher wine, most of which is increadibly sweet. (I managed to buy a bottle that tasted like normal cab sav but the Manischewitz and every other bottle was really quite syrupy.) It was certainly an eye-opener to see my friends reading Herbrew so fluently (in their American accents) and recounting childhood stories steeped in traditions I've never heard of.