Passover is an important festival celebrated mostly by Jewish families. It marks God liberating Israel from Egypt and the celebrations during that period can vary from family to family, and it can mean different things to different people. However, regardless of family tradition, Passover is mainly seen as a celebration of birth and rebirth, a time to embrace new beginnings. Below are some of the different ways you can celebrate Passover and the Passover Seder as a family, involving the kids and anyone else you would like to invite over.
Watch a Passover Movie
There are many movies that retell the story of the Israelite’s liberation from Egypt – one of the most prominent ones being The Ten Commandments. The movie stars Charlton Heston and is a great way to prepare the family for the Passover weekend. It is also a great way to get kids to better understand the history of the Passover and the events surrounding it while giving them an easy way to understand God’s deliverance and miracles.
Involve the Whole Family in Making Matzo
Jewish families avoid eating leavened bread (chametz, bread made from yeast) during the seven or eight days of Passover depending on family traditions and where they live. Instead, unleavened bread (Matzo) is served during meals as a replacement for chametz. Many Jewish families have recipes for homemade matzo which gives them an opportunity to involve everyone in its preparation. Because the preparation can take some time, parents can take the time to retell the story of how God instructed Jews to prepare unleavened bread. The story can be retold directly from the Torah, with some families taking creative liberties with it but keeping the details intact to make it easy for the kids to understand.
In addition to preparing simple matzo, parents can choose to create a matzo house in the same way they would create a gingerbread house. The matzo house can then be used as a decorative piece for your seder table.
Invite Others for a Passover Meal
Passover is a time of celebration, and this is why it is so common for families to invite each other over for Passover supper. There are many ways to arrange the meal, from serving traditional Jewish food to acting out the first Passover meal with the kids.
Sending Passover cards and invitations has become a lot easier due to the advent of digital invitations. These invitations are effective because they are guaranteed to reach the invitees as long as you have the right address, and they can be highly customized according to the message you want to include in the invitation.
Digital invitations also give you access to hundreds more designs compared to what you would get at a local store. To see the variety of designs available to choose from, check out Greenvelope’s Passover cards collection. Greenvelope makes it easy to design, send and track invitations through their online invitation and RSVP service. They ensure you do not have to deal with envelopes, stamps, and the mailing process. In addition to Passover cards, you can use this service to design, send and track wedding invitations, business invitations, baby announcements, and other event invitations.
Paint the Front Door Frame
Israelites painted their doors with blood during the Passover as a sign of their faith in God’s warning. When the Angel of Death passed through Egypt, he skipped over the doors marked with blood and this is the origin of the festival’s name, Passover. You can reenact these events with the family by painting your front door frame red.
It does not have to be a permanent change because there are many temporary and washable paint options available now. If you are not comfortable painting your door frame, there is always the option of hanging a red ribbon across it.
Take the time to understand these events and explain them to the kids. You could also discuss the significance of faith and how Passover could shape your faith in God.
Read a Passover Book with the Family
While it is important that kids hear the original Passover story in traditional form and straight from the Torah, there is a lot of beauty in letting them hear it in children’s story form. They should learn how Moses led his people out of Egypt in a format they can understand.
There are several children’s books available. When choosing one, ensure it tells the whole story from Jacob getting settled in Egypt, to the Exodus, and finally to the parting of the Red Sea.
Prepare and Teach Kids About a Seder Plate
Seder is an important part of Passover celebrations and families should take the time to help their kids understand the foods that go on the plate. Each food is symbolic and there are 5-7 foods that go into the seder plate. These include the bitter herbs (maror), lettuce (chazeret), roasted hard-boiled egg (beitzah), green vegetables (karpas), shank bone, and saltwater.
There is a lot of symbolism and importance to each of these foods, and parents should endeavor to help their kids understand them.
Play Passover Hide and Seek
Passover hide-and-seek is an important part of seder for kids. It involves hiding the Afikomen, a large piece of the matzah. The matzah represents the carrying of the dough out of Egypt by the Israelites. Kids can practice hiding and finding the Afikomen. They can also preface the game by discussing potential hiding spots.
Apart from hiding the Afikomen, kids can also practice their craft by using various materials including sequins, decorative stickers, and felt to create the bag used to carry the Afikomen. The good thing about doing this is that you can keep the bag for a long time to remind you and your kids of their first or earliest seder.
Play a Taste Test Game
There are lots of unique and traditional foods prepared during Passover. Parents may find it challenging to introduce their kids to these foods. However, making a game out of it should make things easy. The taste test game can help kids and even those you invite over to the Passover festival discover they like certain Jewish foods.
Treat Yourself
Passover is a celebration of freedom, and this is why many Jewish families choose to treat themselves during Passover. Some choose to drink wine or grape juice from expensive cups while some choose to switch to more comfortable seats.
Visit a Jewish Temple
Visiting a Jewish temple is a great way to celebrate Passover for those whose families are away or those who do not have anyone to celebrate with. Jewish temples prepare Passover meals for those who attend the festival. Doing this can be a great way to meet other Jews and celebrate Passover with them.
Passover is still relevant today and marks an important part of Jewish history. There is no right or wrong way to celebrate it as long as the original tenets of doing so are adhered to. Passover is a time for remembering God’s faithfulness, our faith in him, and the liberation of Israelites from Egypt. It is also a time to teach the kids the history surrounding Passover and its significance.
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