Picnic Day is one of the most exciting events of the year for UC Davis students. However, this year Picnic Day is being held on April 12 – a special day for yet another reason – it is the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
What is Passover?
Passover is a holiday that commemorates the freedom of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt, as told in the Exodus. Traditionally, Jewish people abstain from eating any form of grain or wheat during the holiday, except for a hard, tasteless cracker called matzah. This is meant to be a reminder of how the escaping Jews did not have the time or luxury to let their bread rise. Every family celebrates differently, but most hold a seder, a meal with many steps, prayers, glasses of wine, and of course, stories. It is one of the many family-oriented Jewish holidays, and usually calls for a huge get-together.
This year, the Jewish UCD community has to make a choice between one of the most important days in our calendar, and the biggest campus event all year. To further understand the implications of this overlap, I interviewed several Jewish UC Davis students to gauge what their perspectives are.
What are Jewish Aggies Saying?
“I think it suggests that whoever was behind the decision to put Picnic Day on the night of the first Seder either doesn’t understand anything about Judaism or doesn’t care,” said one student. “I know it’s probably hard to schedule these things, but … [this] might lead observant Jewish students to feel like Picnic Day was never intended to include them.”
Another student expressed that “as a freshman, I was really excited for my first Picnic Day! I’m so sad to have to miss it due to my religious holiday. As someone who has done event planning, I can understand the difficult logistics of planning an event, however it’s sad to see that the inclusion of Jewish students was not a priority.”
Another asserts: “It’s just really upsetting that they are happening on the same day and I feel very conflicted with both my identities as a UC Davis student and Jew. I ended up picking Picnic Day because most of my friends are in town and I didn’t want to miss out, but I wish I was able to go home to be with my family. It was a tough decision to make!”
However, not all Jewish Aggies consider this overlap to be a net-negative. “I think that Picnic Day being on Passover is sort of ironic considering the nature of the holiday is to recline and relax,” one UC Davis student said. It is true that on Passover, Jews are encouraged to relax – enjoying the perks and benefits of freedom that our enslaved forefathers did not have the privilege to enjoy. In this way, the overlap is hilariously fitting – what better way is there to enjoy our freedom than Picnic Day?
The student continued: “It honestly doesn’t bother me too much that it overlaps, especially because the holiday is celebrated for a week and you can enjoy festivities on one of the other days, but it would be nice if the university took these things into consideration when deciding the date of Picnic Day.”
Conclusion
Having Picnic Day on the first day of Passover is clearly not ideal. Many Jewish students feel alienated and ignored by our administration due to this choice, having been forced to choose between religion and a huge marker of their college experience.
And to all of you 21+ Jewish Aggies out there, remember – no wheat means no beer for you on Picnic Day…