well i’m on my way…

As I’m writing this, I’m hungry.  Part of Passover is the semi-fasting.  We’re not allowed to eat wheat, or anything that might have been near the wheat in the markets back in the day.  Naomi follows all the rules of what she calls the most strict form of Judiasm, so I am too.  So our diet for the next ten days consists of fruit, veg, and potatoes.  It doesn’t sound that bad, but when you’re used to eating bread at most meals, and muesli (granola-y cereal) for breakfast every day, it sucks.  It’s like the first two weeks of the South Beach diet, plus potatoes, minus nuts.  Does it make it worse we’re both vegetarians?

I need to put a disclaimer here, as people other than my family (I’m guessing the fam doesn’t know much about Passover and what a seder is) are reading this.  As I’m trying to describe what I observed, witnessed, and blindly took part in, I may misrepresent something of the culture.  I apologize in advance if I do. 

Seder is the meal that kicks off Passover.  It’s a ceremony of readings, singing, and of course eating.  The idea of the international Seder was started seven generations ago (why I know this is because the 7th generation descendant of the man who started Seder was sitting next to me) for people who don’t have family to celebrate with, or people traveling.  Most of the people at this Seder were young Isreali travelers that just finished their stint in the army.

The building the Seder was held in was on the top floor of a four story building on one of the main streets of Christchurch.  When we arrived around 430 pm, there were only about 20 people in the main room, mostly speaking Hebrew.  Since Naomi looks Isreali, she was addressed to in Hebrew, but answered in English for my sake.  We were asked instantly if we had a car to pick up some chairs.  We left with Leo (Leon?) to find a friendly bakery that would lend us their chairs.  We took four trips back and fourth loading and unloading chairs.  Thankfully, people came downstairs to carry them up.

When we got back to the top floor, it was packed.  Nobody was speaking English, so it was easier for me to stand back and observe, without picking up parts of everybody’s conversations.  We recognized a few people from the Kepler Track, said hello, and went in the kitchen to see if we could help.  One of the organizers of the event pointed to buckets filled with lettuce heads and told us to seperate and wash them.  While we did that, Naomi gave me a running commentary of what was going on around us, since everyone was speaking Hebrew.  It was like having my own personal subtitles!

After watching the male-only prayer that consisted of sing-song prayer from the doorway, we were allowed to sit down for the co-ed part of the ceremony.  This room had dimensions of about 30 feet by 40 feet.  My estimation after doing a rough count of the table I was sitting at (one of five) that there were about 150-175 people in the room, sitting at long tables.  On the table in front of me was a place setting: a fork, knife, cup for water, cup for wine, and a plate with a napkin in the center of it with a leaf of lettuce on top of that.  Spread out all over the table were two salads: one made of cut up lettuce and some kind of dressing and the other made of lettuce and onions in another dressing,  a bowl with mashed hard-boiled egg, a beet and garlic mixture (the only thing I didn’t try), a cup filled with horseradish and lemon, and a cup of salt water.

At the very beginning of the dinner (ceremony?  I’m not sure what to call it), one of the orgainzers asked in English if ther was anyone who didn’t understand English.  He then asked in Hebrew.  Since no one answered, I assumed the night would be spoken in English.  Boy was I wrong.  They passed out books for people to read from:  not only was it all in Hebrew, but to me, an English-reading Westerner, the book was read backwards!

They started by saying welcome, thank you, and all those formalities both in Hebrew and English.  They read a bit from the book and asked people to read paragraphs (this would work much better with a family of less than 20 or 30).  It was a bit confusing as they wanted us to go down the table, reading one by one, but myself and the man next to me could not read Hebrew, so people started picking up where others left off from all over the room.  A few people would read at the same time, some louder than others, and some faster than others.  There were a lot of interruptions and confusion, but the Rabbi kept them on track.

After a while, we got to eat our lettuce.  We put some of the horseradish mixture in the lettuce and ate.  It was bitter, as is most of the food, to represent the bitterness of slavery the Jews went through in Egypt.  There was more reading and singing.  We all put our arms around eachother and rocked back and fourth while everyone sang.  It was nice to be a part of something so interactive.

Naomi told me we were halfway done when the food came out, which meant the reading and talking was over.  There was a potato and onion dish  with lots of spices that turned my fingers yellow (I feel like I should know what spice that is) and matza bread.  The bread wasn’t as bad as Naomi made it out to be.  They kept on bringing out more and more potatoes until we couldn’t eat any more.  Then they brought out what they called chicken soup-I would have called it chicken and water. 

When everyone was done eating, the rabbis and whoever had organized the seder thanked everyone for coming, reminded us that this was the first seder of the year, being New Zealand is right after the international date line…

I had realized sometime during the meal that since I could celebrate the beginning of passover and follow the ten days of it, the least I could do is go to Easter mass, and that Naomi was coming with me.  I experienced her religion, now she can experience mine!

Good Friday night the church in the middle of Chirstchurch was having a chior service.  It wasn’t a Catholic Church, but it was something to do, since we can’t drink on Passover.  (I should also add that because of Passover, my Lent is extended =(  No Tim Tams until April 18 after sundown!  It wasn’t a mass, just about 45 minutes of the choir singing in English and Latin and a few readings from the Bible, about Jesus dying on the cross. 

Sunday morning we went to the Catholic Church for the hour and a half service.  For some reason, I thought it was a four hour service, so I was delightfully surprised that it was so short.  The priest and the other people (wow I just realized that I hardly know anything about the Catholic religion) did their little parade around the church before they sat down.  There was the typical stand up-sit down, read this and that, sprinkle water on the people, replying “And also with you…, Amen, and all the other things I’ve never learned to reply in my many years of avoiding church.  I still remembered the “Our Father” prayer and surprised myself and Naomi, since she’s been asking me so many questions that I cannot answer.

Communion, or Jesus biscuits, as Naomi calls them, are based off the Jewish matza, so we could recieve Communion.  I did, and surprised myself again that I knew what to do, since I haven’t recieved Communion since I don’t know when.  Maybe I was seven?  Naomi didn’t; I think she didn’t want to participate in it for her own religious reasons, which was fine.  Her religion also says that she cannot worship a false God, and for her, Jesus on the cross would be just that.  But she was thoroughly interested which I was surprised at.  I thought she would be bored.  There was also a choir at this sevice, which was an added bonus for the both of us.

This was my first Easter Mass in my entire life, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I’m leaving Christchurch for the second time today, and I may be back.  I’m not sure how I feel about that either.  All I’ve done in Christchurch worth mentioning in the 10 nights I’ve been here is celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, jumped out of an airplane, went to Passover Seder, read in the Botanic Gardens, and attended Easter Mass.   

Tags: New Zealand

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