Rant #2,357: Two For the Price of One

Today is a special day for Jews and Christians alike, and the confluence of the day happens more times than you might think.

For Christians, today is Good Friday, one of the holiest dates on the calendar. The day commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus, later leading to his resurrection.

And as the sun sets tonight, Jews around the world will commemorate Passover, which honors Jews as they escaped their Egyptian slavemasters and made their way through the desert in search of freedom.

The confluence of the holidays is not that rare; in fact, it happened just a year ago. And on that day, I wrote my blog entry about this pleasant situation, and it pays to look back at Rant #2,113, dated March 30, 2018, so here it is in edited form:

"Today is Good Friday, leading up to Easter Sunday, one of the holiest periods on the Christian calendar, honoring the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Tonight, at sunset, is also the first night of Passover, an eight-day celebration centered around the plight of Jews and their liberation by God from enslavement by the Egyptians in biblical times.

It is amazing that these two holidays from two different branches of religion can basically fall at the same time, and in the case of Good Friday and the first night of Passover, the same day.

But it is not as unusual as you might think. I believe this phenomenon last happened in 2015, and before that in 2012, but whatever the case, it does happen, and it is happening this year.

And let's remember, that famous painting of "The Last Supper" is actually one showing Jesus and his disciples at a Passover seder, so yes, the holidays--and the religions, to a certain extent--are intertwined, in particular around this time of year.

I remember as a kid, even though my family is Jewish, we did color our eggs around this time of year. When I was a little kid, my mother would buy the Paas egg-dye kit, and we would dye a couple of eggs. It was fun, but messy as anything, getting into everything, but yes, it was fun.

And before people got hysterical about such things, we used to do the same thing in school, as well as color pictures of Easter bunnies, and hang them on our class walls.

But being Jewish, our holiday was Passover, and I have some great memories of the holiday, from the very religious seders we would have with my paternal grandparents, to the less solemn ones we would have with my maternal grandparents.

I read the traditional Four Questions--"Why is this night different from other nights ... ?--at both seders, and it was done in Hebrew, but let me tell you, each and every word had to be correct at my paternal grandparents' seder, and my sister and I would study the words before we got to the seder, and we would breathe a sigh of relief when we had performed it correctly.

But the onus was clearly on me--being the male child, the first child, the first grandchild, and the one who would carry on the name--to perform it correctly, and I made sure I did just that.

It was because we revered and loved our paternal grandparents so much that we did not want to make an error. My grandmother would have smiled and laughed it off. My grandfather, on the other hand, would not have taken too kindly to it, or at least we didn't think he would.

My sister and I also read it at my maternal grandparents' seder, but really, the pressure was off during their seder. If we made an error, it was no big deal, although I do think they were happy that we were generally able to pull it off year after year without a hitch.

Now, as parents ourselves, my sister and I really get into our own kids reciting the Four Questions, and maybe one day, we will feel the same about our grandkids if we ever become grandparents, something that is not in the offing anytime soon.

I also remember the food, and the lack thereof, when I was a kid.

No, we had plenty of food to eat during the actual seders--too much to eat in fact--but after the seders, what could you munch on when you just felt a wee bit hungry during the other days and nights of Passover?

There was nothing, and I do mean nothing. You could eat matzoh all day, but the dreaded 'matzoh stomach' would then rear its ugly head in your stomach.

You could eat chocolate matzoh and macaroons all day, but I wasn't really a candy eater, so this didn't do much for me.

So, what was a poor boy to snack on?

In about 1965 or 1966, Kosher for Passover potato chips finally made the scene. I am only using those dates because it was when I was eight or nine years old when I first saw them and tried them on for size.

They were chewy, laden with salt, but let me tell you, they were soooooooo good!

And to finally have something to munch on in between meals during the holiday was simply revolutionary!

Today, there are so many things that are Kosher for Passover that you really can choose what you want from so many different items.

Every snack imaginable has been co-opted and made Kosher for Passover, all different types of chips are around for your stomach's content.

There are all different types of "value-added" matzoh, including white chocolate matzoh, and there are as many different types of macaroons as there are cookies.

And once you have one, you have to have another and another.

These things are not just Kosher for Passover, but they taste good too!

And I also become a tuna-holic during this period, eating tuna fish and matzoh for every lunchtime meal. But before that, for breakfast, rather than eat new Kosher for Passover cereals, I eat matzoh and cream cheese.

Oh, what delights! they all taste so good!"

So there you have it. the holidays run parallel, and it is nice to celebrate a holiday where gifts are not the order of the day, your presence is.

So enjoy your holiday, whichever one you follow, have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday ...

Probably with some form of matzoh stomach.