Where is the Afikomen?
Yesterday began the Jewish holiday of Passover. Passover, Pesach in Hebrew, lasts for eight days and commemorates the Exodus from Egypt.
It is one of our holidays summed in the statement:
They tried to kill us. We survived. Lets eat!
While I could go on and on about the overload of amphibians and insects. You know, the ten plagues, I will focus on some more modern instances.
Pesach begins with two dinners called Seder. A Seder, defined simply as "order," is a well structured meal in which we enjoy lavish food, great company, and plenty of wine -- four cups required. We generally double that, just to be safe. I wouldn't want to be a bad Jew or anything. Leavened products like bread and beer are forbidden in remembrance of the story that the fleeing slaves did not have time to let their bread rise. However Ramapo Valley Brewery may put a stop to the latter beginning in 2007!
We had plenty of people over and enough briscuit, matzo ball soup, and asparagus to feed a small army. While this is not unusual for a Jewish mother to prepare this year, in fact, it was not that far off - five of my brother's frat were coming by.
Traditionally after the meal the kids look for a hidden matzo piece called the afikomen. This serves as dessert, but before giving to head of house they bargain for a prize.
The brothers told me a story about their house tradition in which ‘dessert’ and ‘prize’ may have a little different connotation.
posted by jbt @ 8:50 AM
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