This weekend marks the beginning of Passover, an 8-day festival commemorating the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. For my family, this is the one of the biggest holidays of the year and about 3 years ago we started the tradition of having Passover at our house, including not only family, but our closest family friends.
We start off the night with our Seder Service, which is reading from the Haggadah. This includes prayers, songs, and stories and everyone in the room gets a chance to read a line from a page. I love seeing my friends who don’t really know the stories, take a moment and understand what they are reading. History is important regardless of religion, because without remembering it we would not be able to learn from past mistakes. When it comes to the singing portion of the night, my family goes all out. We have several singers in the family and you better believe that we are going to belt out, “Dayeno,” a song representing different problems the Israelites faced. Singing this in Hebrew is sometimes difficult for my friends, but after several verses they catch on and join in on the fun.
My family also likes to include visual aids for when we are talking about the 10 plagues. For years we have used tiny finger puppets that resemble each plague and last year my dad was able to find funny masks for people to wear. He is always trying to find new ways to be creative and make people laugh during the Seder.
Introducing my friends to matzah is also something I enjoy. Even though it is just a basic cracker, you can transform it into so many awesome snacks. We like to serve matzah pizzas and my mom makes the best “Chocolate Caramel Matzah Crack” (recipe included below!!) Other great foods from the night include Matzoh Ball Soup and Potato Kugel.
This year, I am grateful to bring along several of my best friends from college to my family Seder dinner. It will also be the first year that I have not been able to plan the dinner, so who knows what my family has in store for us.
Favorite Matzah Recipe at my house: