Tell me

This weekend, my partner and I had the chance to celebrate the Passover Seder with my friend Brenna and her family. I'm still recounting the experience in my mind, but I was immedately taken with the tradition. I'm trying to figure out what sets it apart from other religious traditions I've celebrated like Christmas. There's the same family aspect, special foods, prayers, rituals. Is it the commercialism that surrounds so many Christian holidays? Even the significance of Easter is overtaken by a bunny with chocolate. I'm not a religious person at all, so why was I moved by this ritual?

And it struck me. It's the story. Whether you believe the story of Passover or care about it, if you participate in a seder, you're a part of the story. It's the talking and listening, the questioning. Brenna and her family are very relaxed about their traditions--and even poke fun at them. How nice though, to have a reason to sit and remember what binds you as a family. The tensions leave the room? The disputes fade? You eat the crappy food and remember how crappy it is, and that you do it every year with these people.

What a great way to pass something from parent to child. What a great way to communicate who you are as a person who you are in relation to everyone else in the world. My parents and I don't talk about these things much. It's like they fade as people into base for-the-moment humor and shopping. They are cut off from the world.

Things I love about Passover:
1. The Afikomen. (I kept thinking of Kofi Annan every time this word was spoken.)
2. The wine. (We did not drink Manischewitz, but lots of other great wine.)
3. The singing and stories, especially the impromptu ones.
4. Leah's version of the Haggadah, which has been used since the 1950's and still had the penciled-in names of her sisters, brothers and parents. (Mort!)
5. Opening the door for Elijah.

Things I do not like about Passover
1. Gefilte fish.
2. Matzo (unless it had jam or chocolate on it).
3. The angel of death.