Celebrating Passover did not come to me via my Jewish ancestors. What there were of them, most likely did not make it out of the Holocaust. In my family history there are still a few things passed on from my Jewish ancestors. Unfortunately, they were so few in number that not much is left. As you will find, reading my posts on The Researcher’s Gateway, my family now celebrates several Jewish traditions. Sometimes by ourselves or often with my adopted family and friends (some of which are Jewish).
For me, Passover was introduced to my world by a college roommate. She took me home with her from Georgia to Pennsylvania to experience my first Seder. I’m pretty certain, although my memory is a bit hazy, that our Spring Break was actually a week or two after Passover. My friend’s family, wanted her to have Seder with them, so they celebrated when we arrived. It was an incredible and wonderful experience and one that left a significant impact on me at such a young age.
The Real beginning of my celebrating Passover came when I moved to Michigan 17 years ago.
In Michigan, around 2002, years after my first Passover experience, I met one of my closest and dearest friends. She quickly became a sister of my heart and a wonderful 17 year relationship began. While she was at University, we started the tradition of having Seder on the first night of Passover with friends. What I loved was that these friends were from all walks of life celebrating together in friendship and love. Many of these friends were unable to go home for the holiday weekend. And so, our tradition became a family experience for them as well.
Those memories followed us as we both moved forward with our lives.
As the years passed and we lived in different states our gathering for Passover waned. When we had our kids, we dreamed about alternating years of hosting, who would cook what, and such. Unfortunately, we lost my dearest sister last year to cancer. So many opportunities seemed to have been lost with her, but I refuse to let it go entirely.
As passover comes upon us this year, I am determined to put together a Seder for my family and friends. I want to celebrate in the tradition that my sister and I started. She can’t join us, so I chose to honor her and the wonderful memories that we created; continuing forward both our own traditions and those of her ancestors.
What I hope to share with you in the next week is the love I have for the Passover traditions.
Over the years I have celebrated many other Jewish traditions with my friends and family. Because of its origins in my world view, Passover has always been a special time in my life.
During the next week I’m going to share some of my favorite memories, including favorite recipes for Seder. We’ll talk about what Passover is and its historical importance in Jewish history. As always, our goal at The Researcher’s Gateway is not only to provide you our own research on a topic, but also help you by providing you links to further information.
My son and I will be spending the week making sweet treats to eat and send to our loved ones. We wish you a blessed Passover week and look forward to interacting with you here! In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a crossword game to play that we use to teach my son some of the terms associated with Passover. Enjoy!
Chag Pesach sameach!
Galen
The Researcher’s Gateway
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