On March 29, 2012 Heidi and I attended our very first
Passover Seder Service. Caitlan, my sister, had recommended the program to us and we jumped on it.
The evening was great. We went through all of the traditional steps of the Passover meal, and were blessed to listen to commentary from a BYU religion professor that explained the significance of the various tradition we took part in.
The Seder is designed to involve all five senses in the
retelling of the Exodus story to the next generation. As we celebrate, we
imagine that we too were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, because "if the
Eternal God had not brought our forefathers out from Egypt, then even we, our
children, and our children's children might still have been enslaved to Pharaoh
in Egypt. Source
Since the service took place in a banquet setting as opposed to in a home, each table was to have their own "elder" to lead several of the readings, distribute food, and "redeem" the Afikomen (more on that in a second). The oldest person at the table automatically won that title, and me, being the sagacious 24 year old I am, was so named (most tables actually had elderly people, ours didn't). Leading the readings and distributing the food was fun, but I was nervous for the Afikomen part. Soon after the dinner part of the event, I broke some unleavened bread called Afikomen that serves as the dessert for the meal, covered half of it, and handed that half to the person on my left, who then proceeded to pass it to someone under the table. The guests were to pass the Afikomen without me noticing for the remainder of the evening, and at the end I'd have to get it back by offering some favor or gift to the person holding the Afikomen at the time. The professor leading the evening suggested meals, tours to limited-access places on campus, etc. -- all of his suggestions reflected the fact that the table's leader was supposed to be at least somewhat established in life -- not me, at least not quite yet. Thankfully, when it came time for me to "redeem" the Afikomen the girl holding it said my favor would have to be me doing a favor for my wife. Also thankfully, the biggest favor Heidi could think of at the time was for me to watch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with her, a movie I happen to love (I don't think she knew that. Thank you, Rachel Ellis Bonner, for introducing me to it). Soon after we left she slapped her forehead for not taking better advantage of her opportunity. :-)
The only downside to the evening was the bitter herbs. Tradition states that enough bitter herbs must be consumed to bring tears to the eyes - to remind us of the afflictions of the Jews in Egypt. This usually means a good-sized spoonful of horseradish. Strait. Then 10 minutes later again, just this time with a fruit salad of sorts. Then again with that fruit salad, spread on top of a piece of unleavened bread. The first spoonful was a complete shock to the senses (I was a little cocky and took a heaping spoonful), and the second and third were little short of torture. My stomach twisted and turned for a full day afterwards, and feels terrible now just thinking of it.
But I suppose that's the point - to remember the toils, heartache, and pain experienced by the Jews as they toiled in Egypt. Heidi and I were taught that evening that as Latter Day Saints, the celebration of Passover should be as core to our religious holiday calendar as any other holiday - we share the heritage of the Passover with the modern-day racial Jews. Passover is as much a part of our history as it is to them, for we claim to come from the Israeli heritage.
It was a fabulous experience, despite the stomach pains. I am immensely glad we went.
