Passover is a holiday that Jews celebrate to remember how, a long time ago, the Jews escaped from slavery in Egypt, and, led by Moses, they traveled all the way to Israel on foot. There are several traditions that Jews follow on Passover, the most important ones being having a “Seder” and eating certain foods to remember slavery in Egypt and the journey to freedom. “Seder” means “order,” — before people wrote the story of Passover down, telling it in order each year helped to preserve the story. A Seder is basically a large dinner where we continue to retell the story of how the Jews escaped slavery and pass it down from generation to generation. At these Seders, Jews eat certain foods to remember certain parts of the journey. The most iconic food is Matzah; a flattened, cracker-like bread. Since the Jews didn't have time to fully bake bread, they had to bake it on their heads while they walked, and it turned into Matzah. So for all eight days of Passover, Jews do not eat any food that has risen like bread. No pasta, no bread, no pizza, nothing.
To people who don't celebrate Passover, the holiday might sound just plain awful. No good food for eight whole days; no candy, no bread, no pasta, no pizza, and two big family dinners back to back with all those relatives that you probably forgot existed.
But in reality, it's different, and a whole lot more fun. Everyone celebrates Passover differently, but there's generally two main ways to do it. The first way is to have your family and a few of your Jewish friends over to your house to have a small Seder with some homemade and some store bought food. It's a fun way to celebrate without going totally overboard. The second way takes an ambitious person, but when executed well, it turns out amazing. This way consists of inviting the whole town to your Seder, cooking every piece of food from scratch, singing tons of songs so loud that the neighbors could hear, even if you couldn't carry a tune if it had a handle on it! This is the way my crazy family does Passover.
After you have two nights of Seders, the next six days are completely normal, except for the food. You still continue eating Passover food, until, on the eighth day, you have a dinner full of pasta and bread, and everything you couldn't eat over the last eight days.
But this is where people begin to get the story twisted. Matzah is not gross, and Passover food is not gross. Using special Passover cake mixes, we can make cakes, cookies and all kinds of delicious desserts that taste just as good, or better actually, than real cake or cookies. We also make all kinds of meals using the Matzah; for instance, if you put some sauce and some cheese on the Matzah and stick it in the toaster, you've got Matzah-pizza!
Most Jewish people that I know love Passover food, and it's so good that we often keep eating it after Passover is over! So if you have a Jewish friend, next week during Passover, ask to try some of their food or ask them about their Seder, because it's probably not exactly what you thought it was. And to all the Jews out there, have a wonderful Passover with your family, your friends or whoever you decide to celebrate with!
