By Every Family’s Got One Founder — Barbara Herel
During my elementary school days, when there were only Judeo-Christian holidays on the calendar to celebrate, the teacher would inquire about the religious affiliations of the class.
“Raise your hand if you celebrate Easter and Christmas,” she directed, and my hand, along with most of my classmates, shot up.
“Now, raise your hand if you celebrate Passover and Hanukkah.”
Again, my hand shot up, much to the confusion of everyone; my teacher gently admonishing me with “You can’t celebrate both, Barbara.”
Oh, but I could. And I did.
You see, my dad was raised Jewish but converted to Catholicism to marry my mom.
What’s more, a generation before, my dad’s dad, Grandpa Frank, converted from Catholicism to Judaism to marry my Grandma Yetta. (Now what a nice Catholic boy was doing at a Jewish dance meeting a nice Jewish girl in the first place is a whole other story.)
So, at Easter, we dyed eggs, hunted for baskets of chocolate, and rejoiced that Christ was Risen. At Christmas, we wished Baby Jesus a happy birthday and thanked Santa for all our presents.
At my grandparent’s house for Passover…
we found the afikoman at the end of an elaborate Seder meal, our trusty Maxwell House Haggadah guiding us through the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. During Hanukkah, we lit Menorah candles and heard about the Maccabees and the miraculous oil.
And yes, we got presents too.
Celebrating two religions was not a bad deal as far as the present thing goes. But what I really liked best was all the firmly-rooted traditions that surrounded the celebrations.
There were the religious ones, of course. Although I can’t say I understood all the sacred aspects of either religion. I was never quite certain what was supposed to be “just a story” and what was supposed to be “real”.
I’m talking about those certain particulars…
oddities, that you could count on year after holiday year. Those little rituals that that made our family our family. Like…
My Uncle Ray hiding my older brother’s Easter eggs in ridiculous out of the way places, like on the roof of the house, which left all of us in stitches.
My cousins and I getting Easter pins ordered from the Avon catalog. The pins opened revealing a solid circle of perfume inside, and let’s just say we applied generously and often throughout the day.
Watching Godzilla, which for some reason would be on at Eastertime, and my Aunt Joanie’s running commentary. “Now eat your broccoli, Godzilla,” she would say as King Kong shoved trees down Godzilla’s throat.
Wolfing down chopped liver while having a drawing contest.
We’d all do our best to recreate the mountain scene that hung in my grandparent’s living room as we waited to be called to the table.
Grandma always being a course behind the rest of us during the Seder, and Grandpa always yelling into the kitchen, “Yetta, come and eat!”
Singing a rousing rendition of Dayenu with everyone slamming their hands on the dining room table – DAI-YE-NU!!!!!!!!!!! That was a real highlight.
These truly are the traditions that first come to my mind for Easter and Passover.
What about you? What do you remember about celebrating these holidays?
I have so many memories of holidays past with my nuclear and extended family. The one thing that I realize though is the family sadly has gotten smaller and smaller with each passing of family members. Holidays past it was like an army was descending upon us. But sadly, so many of those family members are no longer with us. Don’t get me wrong we still have a celebration, but just on a smaller scale I suppose. But still so many greta memories that I will cherish for a lifetime here, too.
Yes, I hear you. We recently lost my father-in-law. I can’t believe he won’t be there for Easter this year. Yet so glad that we’re all getting together. I’m sure there will be more wonderful memories to share about him.
As I get older, I better understand the importance of traditions. Being so far away from all of our family, the get-togethers make that time so much more important.
I remember being a kid and having two very different experiences during the holidays: the reserved Italian Catholic side and the boisterous Irish side. HUGELY different get-togethers, but amazing holiday fun.
Haha… love that there are two distinct personalities to your family, Sarah!
Family holidays are the best. I love that we moved closer to my husband’s family so that we can have more of us together for any and every holiday. I was bummed we had to postpone our St. Patrick’s Day potluck dinner due to sickness, but Easter dinner is coming up soon, so that’ll be another great chance to make memories with those we love most.
Family holidays are the best! We couldn’t agree more. Like you, I feel very fortunate to have family close by. Thanks so much for your thoughts, Kimberly.
This might sound strange but at my paternal grandmother’s house it was always a honey baked ham . . . and Kentucky Fried Chicken! It was a wonderland for us kids – absolutely magical Christmas Eves. We’d run into the house to the living room where all our aunts and uncles would be there and then – each of us had a pile, I mean a real PILE of presents! When it was time to open them it was like winning the showcase showdown on The Price is Right. We were surrounded by so much warmth and love. They’re all gone now and all I have are photos and memories but a piece of them will always be with me every Christmas Eve.
KFC! Yum, love that! Thank you for sharing all these wonderful memories of your family.
Thank you Amy, you are very kind.custom writing service
What a wonderful story! I love the perspective of both religious traditions and Love that your family was able to weave them both together in harmony. I love learning about the Jewish traditions and have incorporated some bits, like the Seder plate, into our own Christian Easter celebration. I’m working to develop my own traditions now that we are starting to have more and more holidays with just us. It’s been fun to pick and choose from our own family traditions and then add in a few of our very own. Happy Easter and Passover!