Dear All, Two weeks from tonight, hte 1st of 2 Passover seders will be held at almost every Jewish family's home.  A seder is a glorified prayer session, with a hearty meal filled with symbolism.  The basic idea is that every Jew must be aware that (s)he was once a slave in the land of Egypt, as all Israel is one.  And now we are free, & must live up to our blessing. 

There are 2 plates at the center of the seder table.  One holds 3 whole matzahs (the unleavened bread eaten on the holiday) in a holder that separates the layers.  The leader of the seder breaks the middle matzah, wraps it in a napkin, & discreetly hides it somewhere.  At the end of the dinner, the children hunt for this, which is called the Afikomen.  Whichever child finds it gets to negotiate with the leader as to his or her prize for findign it.  The dinner cannot be ended & dessert put out until the afikomen is found.  Therefore, leaders don't get too fancy about where they hide it. 

The other plate holds the following:

a roasted bone, or for vegetarians, a roasted beet, to represent the Paschal lamb;

a roasted egg, which represents too many aspects of human life & Jewish life to recount here specifically, but you get the idea about birth;

parseley or another fresh green veggie, for Spring;

horseradish, to represent the bitter & harsh conditions of slavery;

and

charoset (apples, nuts, wine, & cinnamon in Eastern European/Ashkenazi homes; there is widespread variety around the world as to the ingredients.)  This represents the mortar between the bricks that the Jewish slaves had to erect.

In most American Jewish families that are NOT Torah-true, today, an orange is added to the Seder plate to represent the important role of women in Jewish households.

At the Seder, there are 15 sections of the proceedings.  They are recounted in the Haggadah (special prayer-book for the Festival).  Most important are drinking 4 cups of wine (separately, & you can just take a sip, as long as you top up the cup in between), & having the youngest who can read Hebrew say "the 4 Questions."  The answers to the 4 Questions summarize the meanign of the Seder.

The 1st 2 days for all Jews are festivals like Shabbos/Shabbat/the Sabbath, & I won't be online.  Torah-true Jews also treat teh 7th  & 8th day as festivals like Shabbos.

I have barely scratched the surface of the holiday.  Please see "Cleaning for Pesach/Passover," the next thread down in this sub-Forum, for more info.

And, PLEASE, feel free to ask me any questions that you may have.  As my Rabbi says, "There is no such thing as a silly question!" 

Yours in Him, Deb

 Thanks for posting, Deb. I'm not Jewish myself, and my stepdad and all my Jewish friends here are mostly secular, so it's interesting to read about the more traditional ways of celebrating the holidays!

You are so welcome, Iguana!   I've noticed that lots of non-Jews & secular/unaffiliated Jews enjoy reading about comparative religions.  Yours inHim, Deb