Passover Seder

Over a week ago our Judaism teacher gave us a very cultural experience. We were able to put together a Passover meal in the middle of October. For those who don't know, this holiday is usually in April, but it is according to the Jewish calendar so it changes. We were all pretty excited to participate in this during our stay during the fall semester, and it involved a lot of student planning and participation. I was able to help set up the dining room, and I picked flowers and this other plant thing that was all used for table decorations. I was also able to be a narrator for the program and read just a little bit of the traditional text read during Passover, in English of course :) It was really long, close to 4 hours for us actually, but it was definitely worth it and very interesting to eat the traditional Passover foods in remembrance of different aspects of the Exodus of the children of Israel. There were also several songs as well as the readings.

We had "assigned seating" with little name tags. The book I'm holding is the 

one we all read the text from together.

The plants and flowers that I helped cut so we could have pretty table decorations! I thought it turned out pretty good! Props to Sister Muhelstein for picking the stuff out.

Traditional foods to eat at certain times in the Passover experience. Each represents something. The bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery. Charoses (the brown blob in the upper left) represent the mortar that the slaves used to build things. The parsley represents hope, but is dipped in salt water that represents tears shed by the children of Israel. These are just some of the symbolisms. You can read more about it online - it's actually very interesting.

Look Mom! I ate the fish! But not the tomatoes hahaha. 

This was like a 5 course meal we thought the fish was the main dish...nope. We had soup, salad, more meat, and dessert after this. It was ridiculous we were all fatties afterwards.

Megan, me, Kylie :)

Pretty flowers :) The room was decorated very nicely. Ascetically pleasing!

This was a super fun night! I felt very culturally enlightened.