Preparing for company...Kosher style

This week starts my preparation for the upcoming holiday of Passover.  This holiday is one that is celebrated by most Jews, at least in some form, and has been experienced by many non-Jews as the holiday where their Jewish friend eats that funny flat cracker, also known as Matzah.

Passover is a holiday of freedom celebrating the Jews escape from slavery. It’s quite a nice story, actually. To commemorate this event in our history, we spend 8 days avoiding all leavening. This means that instead of bread and other risen goods, we eat matzah, a flat, unleavened bread – like a cracker.

But there is a lot more to Passover then Matzah.  It's a spring celebration, a time to get together with family, have a festive meal and celebrate our history.  Let's be honest, though.  Like (almost all) other Jewish holidays, it's really about the food. But before the food, there's the preparation. 

Around here, we are preparing for the holiday by teaching our children about the holiday.  This isn't always an easy thing to do, in our secular world.  My son goes to preschool, where he learns about all holidays, but this is different - it is our holiday.  To help him learn and prepare, we need to teach him.

There are several things we are doing. We have lots of Passover books. Some address the story of Passover, and some are stories taking place during passover.

One story that we like, that is nice for sharing with Jewish and not Jewish children alike is Sammy Spider’s first Passover. This is one that we will be sending to preschool with our son, to share with his friends.

For my younger son, we have a A touch of passover. This board book is a simple one, with details of the Passover Seder, the big dinner celebration that starts the holiday. It has nice pictures, and several areas for children to touch and feel, making it come to life.

We`ve also downloaded and printed out a bunch of Passover colouring pages. While I`m not usually a big fan of colouring pages, these are around our house for my kids and their friends to colour, making them a part of their daily life.

We got our sons his very own Passover set. 

 

This has helped him understand a bit about the holiday, and incorporate it into his pretend play.

He loves to break the matzah apart, and put it back together, like a puzzle!

We`ll be busy for the next week shopping, cleaning and cooking for this feast.  Wish us luck!

Comments

[kgirl]

good luck! that set looks cute. all i have is a bag o'plagues. it puts the 'fun' back in 'seder.' oh, wait...

[Urban Daddy]

LOL.

I read this article and thought it sounded like something my wife would write.

Right on!