People ask me about Passover. I loathe explaining it, because I'm always afraid of my own ignorance, however; I did a good job in an email to Rick when he asked about the Seder. He also did a bit of research and I'll post that here, too.

From my email: The Seder is the Passover supper (there are three: two on the first two nights and one on the last, but reformed Jews usually only do the first, and sometimes the second).

Through the eating of specific foods, we commemorate the suffering and blessings that our ancestors survived in their flight from Egypt. Passover itself is refering to the final plague set upon the Egyptians... the killing of the first born son. Jews marked their doors with lamb blood to signify their faith and so, the Angel of Death passed over their houses.

In Christian terms, the Seder is what Jesus celebrated with his disciples when they had the Last Supper.

From the website, detailing what is set upon the Seder plate:

Maror
Bitter Herbs (usually horseradish) symbolize the bitterness of Egyptian slavery

Karpas
Vegetable (usually parsley) is dipped into salt water during the seder. The salt water represents the tears shed during Egyptian slavery.

Chazeret
Bitter Vegetable (often lettuce) is often used in addition to the maror as a bitter herb

Charoset
Apple, nuts, and spices ground together and mixed with wine are symbolic of the mortar used by Hebrew slaves to build Egyptian structures

Zeroa
The Shankbone is symbolic of the Paschal lamb offered as the Passover sacrifice in biblical times

Beitzah
The Roasted Egg is symbolic of the festival sacrifice made in biblical times

I hope that enlightens a few.

HAPPY PASSOVER !!

I'm in the Petes for high-holiday celebrations, principally Passover, but since we're a mixed religious household, a little of Easter too.

Last night, while I was watching Law & Order, I finished modeling Rick's masque. It's looking pretty cool now, in a very traditional, baroque, costume-ball sort of way. I hope he likes it. I'm going to buy thin fabric to cover it, in dark red and black, probably a pvc-type cloth, in order to give it shine without resorting to varnishing it. That would make it ridiculously heavy, and already, the nose gives it a lot of frontal weight. I put a bit of padding in the bridge of its nose, as the weight might irritate the real nose on which it is balanced. Anyway, it's looking pretty snappy.

In a less-than-traditional celebration of the first full day of Passover, I'm going to buy a glue gun. *laugh* Since the stores are open today, unlike tomorrow, it will give me a chance to cover my own masque in the fabrics that I've already bought.

In other news, the OPSEU strike is still progressing at a pace - the government still refuses to return to the bargaining table, which means the front-line public service remains in front lines on the sidewalks. The spirit remains high, even though by all accounts, the strike will continue for a long, long time. The general feeling is that no one is going to attempt to bring them back inside until Ernie Eves actually steps up to take over from Harris, mid-April. How nice. That way, Eves can look like a hero and Tsubouchi will take the fall. The government continues to pretend that this strike makes little difference in the grand scheme of things, but in the long run, that won't end up the case. Water will go untested, foods will go uninspected, wildlife will go unprotected, the courts will be backed up, among many other things. So, sure, the goverment saves money by not paying the salaries of 30,000 people, but it loses money in a much more long-term, perhaps less visible, or sexy sort of way. It's a situation that sucks. For everyone.

Can you believe that it's snowing? I'm not talking about flurries, either, I'm talking about the real thing, a regular heavy snowfall. So, now that spring is here, apparently, it's time for winter to begin. Apparently the entities controling the weather have gotten some wires crossed.

I'm not actually complaining, as I'm one of those wackos that really like snow. Frankly, there's been so little, that I might go out at lunch just to kick some of the white stuff around. Of course, all my appropriate footwear is still at Al&Carrie's, as I hadn't expected a full coverage of snow at this point in the season, at least not after such a ridiculously mild winter.

Naturally, the weather turned... I had to move. Why should I get mild, sunny weather for that? I should appreciate the flurries that fell and the grey depressing sky overhead, right? Sure. Anyway, I did move again, to my new official place, with Nick. The move went well (this past Saturday, it was) since the majority of stuff was all boxed up and ready to go in storage. Ryan was supposed to help, but due to his cysty girlfriend being de-cysted he had to look after her following the operation. I'm still waiting to meet this woman who manages to keep me from any sort of contact with Ryan most of the time. It's getting insulting that I -haven't- been introduced.

Anyway, I digress. Rick, despite a wickedly gimpy knee, was a trouper and helped me pack up the big cargo van (thank God it wasn't the guzzling truck, this time) and haul everything up to my new appartment. We did snap at each other a lot, due to the high stress of the situation, but I guess that was to be expected. Back at A&C's Al helped move he remainder of my furniture from there to my new place, leaving Rick to recover some mobility with Carrie. Ooh, that sounds almost dirty.

Nick helped too, carrying things up the stairs into the appartment, and depositing them hither and yon. Rick spent the night with me, not that I was much fun, I'll admit, for as soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

Sunday, I was a mess of aches and pains, grumpiness, and bitchiness. I was mildly entertained at Heretic by a cross-dresser with bad, but expensive, taste in women's clothing. Sandles? Platform sandles? Hello, it's COLD. Anyway, he bought a funky chainmail purse so it was all good. I had my first dinner in the house that night, cooked by Nick, and it was a cheesy, garlicky noodle mess that tasted most delicious. I ate it while I watched the Academy Awards. I also started to organise my room, which is going to be no small feat.

Yesterday was a day for extreme mental confusion. I just kept going the wrong way (including on the subway - you'd think I'd never ridden one before). I was half an hour late for work. After work, I had to walk back to my old neighbourhood to get my car. I needed to do some Passover shopping. I had much fun at the HUGE Dominion at Lawrence and Bathurst where there is an enormous kosher section due to the high number of Jews in the area.

There was a youngish Orthodox man, maybe 22 at the oldest, in the check-out line ahead of me with 20 two-litre bottles of Coke in his cart, 4 two-litre bottles of Canada Dry, and 2 two-litres of tonic. I couldn't help it, I giggled and said, "That's a lot of Coke, there." He blushed and nodded.

Me: "You know, Coke's not good for you."
Him: "I know." (sheepish grin)
Me: "It makes you pee."
Him: (chuckling and blushing) "I know."

Then I pulled out my pathetic Passover foods, all out of boxes and cans and set them on the conveyor belt. He looked at them and raised a brow. I looked at him and back at my food.

Me: "Don't start. I'm a recovering university student. I don't have the time or money for homemade seder food."
Him: (grinning widely) "I didn't say a word." (more blushing)
Me: "Uh huh."
Him: (more smirky smiling)
Me: Cola boy. (evil grin)
Him: Ooohh. (little whiney noise and tiny stamping of feet)

I wished him a good Passover as he finished checking through and he me. Hee !

I worked on the masques last night, too, after being lost for a long time on the way to Nicole's new place. Rick's masque is very traditional, but I'm beginning to like it very much. I hope he likes it. It has a very long nose, which he asked for. Mine is very helmety but quite fantastic. It's ready for covering with fabric now. I'm taking them both home this holiday to work on them. Nicole is wonderful. I like her more and more.

Must get some food now.