“Seder” is a word that means “order”. There is a very specific order to how this celebration works. I’m going to outline the pieces and briefly describe them for you. If you want a more detailed description, I’ll provide some links at the end.
- Kadeish – Blessings and the first cup of wine (“I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians”)
- Ur’chatz – Traditionally, a ritual washing of your hands before the meal
- Karpas – Dipping the green vegetable in the salt water and offering a blessing
- Yachatz – Break the middle matzah and hide the larger piece as the Afikomen for later
- Magid – The telling of the story of slavery to freedom and the second cup of wine (“I will deliver you from their bondage”)
- Rohtzah – The second hand washing, including a blessing
- Motzi/Matzah – The blessing and eating of the matzah
- Maror – A blessing, dipping, and eating of the bitter herb
- Koreich – Take some maror and a piece of matzah to make a sandwich and eat it
- Shulchan Orech – Eat the Passover meal, traditionally starting with the egg
- Tzafun – Eat the afikoman
- Bareich – Recite the Birkat Hamazon, drink the Cup of Blessing or Redemption (third cup of wine), and welcome Elijah
- Hallel – Praise and worship! Then the fourth cup, the Cup of Thanksgiving
- Nirtzah – Conclude the seder with an expression of hope for the future (“Next year in Jerusalem!”)
The photo above is the plate I made for my seder. I think I’d like to try to find a nice plate to use for next year. The only thing I was missing was real matzah. I couldn’t find any that didn’t say “not for passover” on them!
Here are some links to do some research yourself:
How to Celebrate Passover
The Food Traditions of Passover
The reading I did
Matzoh candy…mmmmm
The charoset that I made
-j
ps- Sorry it took so long. I still have one more to go. Don’t expect it tomorrow, but it’ll be up soon.
I'm Jason, and I like to write.