It was our family's turn to host the Passover Seders and relatives were arriving from everywhere. Uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents were all coming to join us for this holiday. My mom was slaving away at the stove making enough food for the two Seders. For dinner, she made chicken, vegetables, and potatoes. She cooked enough matzah ball soup to feed an army. She baked potatoes and boiled eggs. With the help of my little brothers, she made charoset. Charoset is made of chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon, and a little bit of wine. My mom bought boxes of matzah by the dozen.
My dad read many Haggadahs, the prayer book read during a Passover Seder, to pick excerpts to have people read to make the Seder more interesting. My brothers and I cleaned up our rooms, which took a very long time.
On the night before Passover, my brothers and I hunted around for the pieces of bread that my parents hid.
English: Festive Seder table with wine, matza and ...
Handmade shmura matzo used at the Passover Seder e...
English: "Holyland" brand matzah, machine-made in ...We then wrapped the bread up in newspaper, put it in our driveway, and burned it. The newspaper looked crisp when the fire went out. We did this to symbolize the removing of all the bread from our house, since during Passover we do not eat any bread or anything else that rises.
The next evening, we had the first Seder. My relatives arrived later than expected. Instead of me and my cousins playing for a while, we had to start immediately.
We did the first few parts of the Seder, which were a ritual for washing your hands and having the first cup of wine, grape juice for some. Shortly after this, we got to the point where you eat the potato to give thanks for the coming of spring. As in all the Passover Seders I...