
Hey there Zwinksters,
Mister Professor here. As you may have read in my bio, I teach in ZSU's IRL (In Real Life) Department. As the newest addition to zwINK, I can't tell you how psyched I am to discuss exciting stuff about the world we live in with you!
My first topic is a really cool upcoming holiday that some of you might be celebrating. Here are some hints... It's older than Christmas. Many scholars believe Jesus and his disciples were honoring it during the famous Last Supper. It's one of the World's longest continuously observed religious ceremonies.
I'm talking about Passover! You know... ten plagues, staves into snakes, parting the Red Sea, "Let my people go!"... Passover commemorates the Jews' exodus from Egypt and is the story of how a people went from being slaves to becoming a nation. It has been celebrated for over two thousand years, and it will probably be celebrated two thousand years from now! I think that makes it very cool and worth knowing about. Also, pay attention because if you've always wanted a ZCard, there's a part of this holiday that could help you out!
So let's get to it. On the first two nights (just the first if you're in Israel) of this eight-day holiday, a meal called the Passover seder is held. The story of the Exodus is retold and everyone contributes by asking questions. This makes every seder kind of unique! Like Miss Thang showed you, you can even host a seder in Zwinktopia!
To help the participants understand what it was like for Jews in the story, symbolic foods are eaten at specific times during the tale.
Bitter herbs (Maror and Chazeret), a sweet, brown paste of chopped nuts, grated apples, and cinnamon (Charoset), celery, parsley or boiled potato (Karpas) dipped in salt water, lamb or goat shankbone (Z'roa) and hard-boiled egg (Beitzah) all play a role in representing the slaves' plight in Egypt.
Oh, you're probably still wondering about how you can get that ZCard, right? Keep reading!
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