Passover vacation

[chanaleh]

I left Boston last night and won't be back for 10 days! Right now I am in NYC. Tomorrow morning I am heading to DC to have seders with lonebear and family, staying through sometime Wednesday. But then I'm returning to NYC and staying here for almost an entire week, right through the last day of the holiday (Tuesday the 26th, also my mom's birthday), because my office is closed and I can. :-)

Today I walked all the way from here over to jessruth's (about a 50-minute trek), had brunch with her at noon, poked around midtown a little, met up with my beloved for second-lunch at 3pm when he had a break from rehearsal, and walked around and snuggled in the sunshine and felt absolutely glorious. Now I'm curled up in justom's apartment (while he's back at rehearsal), with several pounds of chicken stewing on the stove and a couple pounds of eggplant sweating in preparation for being turned into caponata (one of my Pesach staples, excellent on matzah). Life is good.

Crossposted from Facebook: Palm Sunday pop quiz: What JEWISH holiday includes mandatory (in Temple times) pilgrimage to Jerusalem, waving of palm branches, and singing of "Hosha na"? Hint: It's not in the springtime!

Edited to add: Answer (though firstfrost already got it): Sukkot, a.k.a. the Festival of Booths (or, more imaginatively, Tabernacles), which occurs in the fall, two weeks after Rosh Hashanah. It is one of the three "pilgrimage festivals", the other two being Pesach, a.k.a. Passover, and Shavuot, a.k.a. Pentecost, 49 days after Pesach. Besides building playhouses in the yard to eat meals in all week, the principal observance of Sukkot is to take palm branches along with three other species (including the lemon with the nose) and wave them around while reciting several stanzas of Hosha na, "save us".

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

That's a very clever way to get out of cleaning for Passover :)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Isn't it, though? 0:-)

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

I won't answer the question. :)

What is caponata?

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Essentially, sauteed eggplant (and in my case garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms), lots of olive oil and a little balsamic.

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

i might be convinced to try making this. Wonder how senora_gem would like it.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I'd bring you some of this batch, except that it was cooked in a mamash treyf (and therefore obviously chametzdik) kitchen, which I assume is Not OK (though feel free to tell me if it is!).

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

We'll get the ingredients when I pick you up.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

would love a recipe...

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

"Recipe" is a bit of an overstatement, but I will try to write up the process for you :-)

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

marvy.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

caponata is extremely tasty! I actually tend to make it to have available for yom kippur fast breaking, because the vegetables are all in season at the end of summer (eggplant, pepper, tomatoes are the primary ingredients in mine. Also olives, but those are never in season anywhere around here. ;-) )

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Hmm. My atheist upbringing tells me the "Hosanna" song is from Jesus Christ Superstar (though I would not have been very clear what holiday), and my caponata recipe has a pound of pork in it. I have all the wrong answers. :)

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Hmm, is "Hosanna" derived from "Hosha na?" (which means save us, or something related to saving, doesn't it?)

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

It is indeed. And of course in Christianity, on Palm Sunday (a week before Easter), that's totally the point.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Oh! The right answer is the one with the lemon with the nose! I should have known!

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

On that note, reading up a bit more, I'm reminded that one is supposed to save one's palms for Palm Sunday to be burned to form the ashes for the following Ash Wednesday.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

*ding!* :-D

[cycon.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I've got Jesus Christ Superstar stuck in my head.

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

We'll be within walking distance of you for the seders (unless he's moved and I don't know it)! Give one of us a call!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

Come on by!

[c1.livejournal.com]

I had to ask one of my kids why students were going around with black spots on their heads recently.

Why yes, yes, my feet start burning whenever I set foot in a church... why do you ask?

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

A zissen pesach, you. Hold on to that good feeling.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

See you in a few days!

[goljerp]

Hey, maybe we can do something the last 2 days? The trouble, of course, is coordinating things :-)

In any case, hag sameach!

p.s. I have thought about a triangular trade of palm fronds, chametz, and... um... well, that's part of where the thing breaks down :-)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

So, there's time to coordinate before it happens! I would LOVE to do something the last two days (daytimes particularly, my eves are booked at this point anyway). Also I'm really planning to come to shul somewhere on Shabbat and was thinking of your place for Sat a.m. assuming I can figure out where to go. :-)

Chag kasher v'sameach!