Christian Passover Seder Meal

Christ, mysteriously incarnate as both the Son of God and a faithful Jewish man chose the Passover Seder to institute the new "meal" of salvation and redemption. As Christians we can celebrate this Seder to share our common ancestry with our Jewish brothers and sisters, and in memory of the meal that Jesus cerebrated with his apostles.


This is one of those things that I've fancied doing for a few years but never quite got around to doing. I suppose it would of been better to do this on Maundy Thursday, but with going out to Mass I don't think we'd of had time, so we decided (quite on the spur of the moment) to hold it last night.
I'd downloaded all the information on what to do a while ago from http://www.domestic-church.com I wasn't sure how open to doing this Andy would be, some times if you ask him to do some thing like this he'll look at you like you've asked him to eat his own liver, and other times he'll reluctantly agree then go all out and totally astound me.
This thankfully was one of those later occasions, he was a little unsure but I think what swayed him was the macho image of head of the household. I did suggest asking James to take the lead Father part, but Andy's testosterone levels wasn't going to allow for that.
Traditionally before the Passover holiday the house is to be meticulously cleaned --eeerm I sort of tided a little bit.
The table was set with the extra place for Elijah. Ella went straight to the place I'd set for Elijah, so I had to move her just in case he showed up.
The meal is in two parts: the ceremonial foods; the matzoh, horseradish etc and then the proper food.
We start of with mother (that's me) lighting the candles whilst at the same time saying the blessing, a tricky move for someone as uncoordinated as me, I think I nearly set fire to the instruction sheet.
Next came the first of the cups of wine - "The cup of Salvation". We then washed each others hands.
We then all had to eat a bit of parsley dipped in salt water - Jessica and her friend Jessica pulled some interesting faces at this point although not as good as the bit when they had to eat the horseradish
As we didn't have any boys Jessica asked the four questions.
Next came the Matzoh or unleavened bread, I'd made this myself from Kosher flour stuff I think that's also called matzoh. I'm not sure what the finished stuff is supposed to be like but it turned out a bit like the communion host that taste like they are made from wholewheat flour. I've seen people use pitta bread for this but after looking at the ingredients for pitta bread it still contains yeast - "The leaven is a symbol of sin." "Don't you know that just a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough". Maybe I was going a bit OTT but if you're going to do a thing, do it properly (although it has to be said I didn't for the shank bone as you'll see later)The bitter herbs, we actually used creamed horseradish, well ok it was horseradish sauce, bt have you seem the size of an actual horseradish they're huge and really ugly looking. As i said no one really enjoyed this experience but your not supposed to.
The Haroset came next - this I made myself from apples,nuts Cinnamon, honey and wine. (Topped with a crumble topping and baked I feel this might be quite nice.)
After that we where supposed to recline on cushions, but we didn't have any so we pretended!
We all took a turn doing the readings for the story of the passover, then came the second cup: THE CUP OF PLAGUES. Andy all along took his Father role very seriously as he said the blessings I was very inpressed, he even got a little cross with the girls wen they got a bit giggly and where not taking it as seriously as him. I forgot to mention that when we ate the matzoh you share half between all gathered round the table and the other half is wrapped in a napkin and hidden for the kids ti find later, I suppose this is the origins of hunting Easter eggs. In he Christian Seder they use the comparison of Jesus wrapped in the shroud and hidden away from the world for three days.
When we came o the holding up of a shank bone or other symbol of the lamb we made do with a plastic lamb that came on top of some mini Easter eggs looking quite cartoon like sat down waving it's legs and smiling, perhaps this did ridicule the seriousness of the evening, but Andy still managed to pull it off with great solemnity. (Oh how I wish I'd had my camera at the ready).
Next came the bit with the egg - For further details check out the website via the link,
Dayenu - it would have been enough, The Father says various things to which we respond it would have been enough.
We then drank the cup of joy before the girls where sent to search out the hidden matzoh, which took enough time for Andy to go outside for a quick smoke.
Next we lifted our cups to Elijah I think it might of been at this point that I spilt red wine all over the table cloth!

The final cup, the cup of praise brings in the Christian significance with the final cup being the crucifixion.

We the feasted on roast lamb which turned out very well all though I say it myself and Kosher biscuits to finish with no one apart from Ella really seemed o like these very much, as James said they taste like any foreign biscuit.
A game of Cludo concluded the evening.