Posted on: Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Preparation intense for Passover
| • | Celebrate with hospitality |
| • | Cooking up kugel with yogurt |
Associated Press
Passover is one of the most important Jewish festivals and always is observed from the 15th day of the month of Nisan to the 22nd day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish lunar calendar. The dates on the Gregorian calendar (the conventional solar calendar used in the Western world), vary, falling in March or April.
During this period, observant Jews do not eat any leavened products and keep their homes free of these foods as well. This includes anything from the five major grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt) that has not been completely cooked within 18 minutes of coming into contact with water. Some Jews further avoid rice, corn, peanuts and legumes (beans).
This involves intense preparation to assure that anything not "Kosher for Passover" is out of the house — or at least sealed off in some way and inaccessible during Passover. (To see the Orthodox Union's 2005 "OU Guide for Kosher for Passover Foods," go to www.ou.org.) A key feature of the Passover tradition is the Passover Seder, a ritual banquet that re-enacts the Exodus, the rescue of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. Traditionally, this is conducted on both the first and second evenings of Passover; only observant households tend to do the second night.
The Seder's major feature is the reading of the Haggadah, which relates, in detail, the events of the Exodus of the Jewish people from ancient Egypt, complete with symbolic re-enactments using kosher wine, specially prepared matzah (unleavened bread), and bitter herbs.
Four cups of wine are consumed during the course of the Seder to commemorate the redemption of the Jewish people, the sanctity of the holiday and events related in the Haggadah. The Seder is a traditional occasion for Jewish families.
The meal features either meat or milk foods, not both, and no leavened products. Common foods are matzah ball soup, gefilte fish (a poached fish cake), charoset (a fruit relish meant to remind celebrants of the mortar used in building during the Jews' period of slavery), kugel (a baked vegetable pudding), often a roast chicken, leg of lamb or brisket.
This year, Passover begins at sundown April 23 and continues for eight days by the Orthodox tradition (seven days for Reform and some Conservative Jews and Jews in Israel).
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