Because I do not really want to ponder our present political situation, I am revisiting some old thoughts. Sunday was Palm Sunday which, depending on how you celebrate, is the beginning of the holiest week of the year for Christians. And this Monday at sundown started the first night of the eight days of Passover for the Jews where we give up all 'leavened bread' in commemoration of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage. There is also a pagan element where we await the arrival of a large invisible bunny rabbit, the symbol of fertility and Spring renewal, to deliver chocolate eggs to good little boys and girls.
The Passover season always brings me back to a conversation I overheard on the bus a few years ago. Yes, I admit, I love to listen in on random conversations. It is like that line from Shakespeare "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players..." I credit my years in the theatre for my love of listening. And sometimes you can hear the most amazing and absurd things. Things that can cause you to ponder questions that you never thought you would ever want to ponder.
So, this beautiful spring day, I was staring into space lost in my own thoughts when I heard a woman exclaim "...and that's how they save gefilte fish!" My ears perked up! My first reaction was "Why? Why would someone need to do that? We could have been saved so many other things, but someone had to save gefilte fish?!" For those of you who have been to a traditional Passover Seder, you may understand. For those of you who have not, let's just say that the gefilte fish course of a traditional Passover seder is truly something to be missed. [Sorry, God, but haven't Jews suffered enough?] After my initial thought, I couldn't stop laughing. Frankly, I have been laughing ever since I heard that. I haven't been able to get it out of my head and I really wish that I could have heard the rest of that conversation.
So let's open up the floor and feel free to share how you celebrate. Do you do anything special? What do you think of Cadbury removing the word "Easter" from their traditional chocolate eggs?
If you can't think of anything, there's always the United Airlines bouhaha...
The Passover season always brings me back to a conversation I overheard on the bus a few years ago. Yes, I admit, I love to listen in on random conversations. It is like that line from Shakespeare "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players..." I credit my years in the theatre for my love of listening. And sometimes you can hear the most amazing and absurd things. Things that can cause you to ponder questions that you never thought you would ever want to ponder.
So let's open up the floor and feel free to share how you celebrate. Do you do anything special? What do you think of Cadbury removing the word "Easter" from their traditional chocolate eggs?
If you can't think of anything, there's always the United Airlines bouhaha...
The removal of the word Easter and its replacement by any one of a number of words such as "spring" is much like the attack on Christmas. I don't patronize companies that do that. I realize that it's a small thing but the options open to one single person are limited.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, there's no way to melt butter on the sabbath. Hot, melted butter would help the gefilte fish, but you can't do it.
ReplyDelete"There is also a pagan element where we await the arrival of a large invisible bunny rabbit, the symbol of fertility and Spring renewal, to deliver chocolate eggs to good little boys and girls."
ReplyDeleteLOL! Yep. My religions believes in that one too. We're Cadbury-ists. And once a year, we eat filled chocolate eggs until my cardiologist cries. :)
LL, I don't get why they decided to remove "Easter" from the Cadbury "Easter Egg". Maybe they want to make it a year-round thing. They coulda' gone another route and made the "Easter Egg" version special edition.
ReplyDeleteAndrew - At least you cadbury-ists get chocolate! All I get is gefilte fish...at least they could make it those Swedish fish, but NOOOOOO!
ReplyDeleteAnd Tryanmax, for the record, no amount of butter can save gefilte fish. Even covering it in horseradish, well, that is the only flavor it has.
Bev -
ReplyDeleteOne can be both Jewish and a Cadbury-ist! Though it's the Reese's candy that will kill me. Their palm-sized chocolate and peanut butter Easter egg gets me every year. And since I have no willpower, I have to buy it, at least a few times throughout the season.
Had Passover dinner last night with the relatives who live out here. It was nice. One of my cousins brought her husband and her son, a super-adorable 2-year old. He doesn't read Hebrew yet was still better at it than me. :-)
Ugh! I hate Swedish fish. You mean the red ones, right!?
ReplyDeleteIf butter can't save gefilte fish, then it must truly be worse than lutefisk. (Which literally translates from Norwegian as "butter delivery system"…I think.)
They sell Cadbury slime eggs at Halloween now, so it's going year-round I think.
Question: is removing the foil akin to picking the bones? In case I ever find myself with Cadbury eggs at a Seder.
Ooooooh, get this! Cadbury had an oreo egg this year. It was ok, not worth buying again. BUUUUT, this egg came wrapped in two foils cups that were separated with little tabs. You just pulled the tabs apart and the egg popped right out. No mess. What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteScott, The Reeces stuff is good, but the Cadbury eggs are like crack to me.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, if gefilte fish is so awful... why eat it? Is this the Jewish version of hazing?
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to be as good as possible for Holy Week and not think bad thoughts about Dimocrats..however...I guess I need to consider confession again...
ReplyDeleteOn matters of of a Jewish flavor...About a week ago my wife , kinda out of the blue, asked, "What is lox?" I instantly answered, "liquid oxygen". She said, "No, it's a food.." then I remembered and told her it was salmon.
My doctor who is from The Bronx was telling me that the best lox comes from Nova Scotia and he even told me of a number of great places to eat in NYC if I get up there again. He thought my remark to my wife was funny...
Critch = You've never had lox?? It is cold smoked salmon and the best is from Nova Scotia...called Nova lox. I have done my homework on this and the best place to get it is from Zabar's in NYC/Manhattan. They smoke their own in Brooklyn. And it has to be hand-sliced. Not that prepackaged stuff. Other places - Russ & Daughters, Barney Greengrass and others, but Zabar's has the best. Okay, there may be other places like the Bronx & Brooklyn that have theirs, but...who wants to go there? Well, Zabar's is the best to buy it and eat at home. THey don't have a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteLox makes up for the gefilte fish...
Don't get me started on the best bagels...
ReplyDeleteWe're going to buy some smoked salmon today and try this...Good Friday is still a meatless day for us..I'm going to try it some of my hillbilly friends..they'll probably like it...we use carp eggs for caviar around here and often we eat smoked carp, buffalo (a fish) and sucker (another fish). We're pretty adventurous when it comes to food..
ReplyDeleteOT but Charlie Murphy just died of leukemia. He was a big part of the riotously funny Chappelle Show.
ReplyDeleteI've eaten smoked salmon many times, but never on bagels with cream cheese...and probably not the Nova...One of my favorite snacks when stationed in Germany was smoked salmon on a roll with tartar sauce, dill pickles, Swiss cheese and sliced boiled eggs...yummy with that good German beer.
ReplyDelete