2018 Life Logs, Day 89—Easter and Passover Traditions
Date: Friday, March 30, 2018
Weather: Overcast and Foggy; High Temp 51, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus over 2,000 years ago while Passover celebrates the ancient Jews leaving Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Both are determined by the spring equinox which occurred on March 20th this year. Equinox means ‘equal night’ in Latin, so ten days ago we experienced day and night of equal length all over the world. This year, the first night of Passover was today, Good Friday, and Easter will be on the second day of Passover this Sunday, April 1, which is also April Fool’s Day. Easter and April Fool’s Day occur on the same day about three or four times each century. The next time this will occur is in 2029, then 2040, and then not again until 2108. So make good with your Easter April Fool’s jokes!
But back to Easter and Passover. Easter is all about Jesus and Passover is all about Moses. Both of these men inspired people to strive for kindness, respect, and for justice for all people. I’m all in for that, so I enjoyed spending the day celebrating both traditions with the Goldstones. Since the Goldpebbles did not have school today but Heather and Jed needed to go to work, I went over this morning to be with the boys. I took things needed for coloring Easter eggs with natural dyes—red cabbage for blue eggs, turmeric for yellow eggs, beets for pink to red eggs, onion skins for marbled brownish eggs.
I enjoyed the morning with the boys as we hypothesized what color eggs we would get from the various natural dyes. The red cabbage was the real surprise. The boys were certain we would get pink, red, or purple eggs, but actually you get blue eggs from red cabbage dye.
The dye is ruby red, but the egg that emerges is definitely blue. So cool.
Heather and Jed both got home early in the afternoon, so I headed home for a couple of hours to work on Ziggy’s book. Then I returned for a Passover Seder. This is a Jewish ritual feast marking the beginning of Passover. The Seder is a feast that includes reading from the Haggadah, drinking wine, telling stories, singing, and eating special foods. When I arrived I was greeting by Ollie in the front yard playing hockey with Jonah, Jed, and Ollie’s stuffed panda that he got for his birthday.
Panda was also invited to join us for the Seder which was so cute.
I really appreciate being included in the Goldstone Seder tradition and the food tonight was spectacular. Heather made a roasted chicken with lemon, scallions, and green olives accompanied by spicy carrots and salad. Thank you, Goldstones!
