In spring every year there is the Jewish holiday Passover. It is a ritualized meal celebrating the end of their slavery in Egypt and their freedom as a result of it. Before the meal a Seder plate is made with certain food items on it. There is a bone for which my informant cannot remember, bitter vegetables representing the bitterness of slavery, a hard boiled egg, and Horosit, apples and nuts, which represents bricks and motar. Once that is set in the center of the table the meal begins. When sitting to eat one doesn’t eat sitting straight up one should lounge to show you can do what you want with your freedom. Also one is supposed to drink 4 cups of wine during the meal. During one of the glasses they will list the ten plagues and when each is listed they will dip a pinky into the wine and make a dot on their plate representing the blood and death of the plagues. Also throughout the meal Matzo bread is eaten which is unlevened bread. This is a bread that jewish people took with them when they left Egypt.

This is a ritual tied to a religion. In order to commemorate and remember the event certain aspects of the journey are represented in the meal. The whole meal has metaphors for aspects of the journey that the original celebrates of Passover thought were essential to remember. My informant was not very religious but he still viewed the holiday as an important way to celebrate his heritage and be with his family.

Annotation: This ritual can be seen being talked about in an episode of The Daily Show originally aired on April 9th 2012 called Faith/Off.