family life

Passover is coming and as usual, I’m both excited and nervous about it. Excited because Passover is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Nervous because it falls on me to set the overall message and presentation of the celebration.

When is Passover 2009? Dates of Jewish Holidays – Pesach Date

In 2009 Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday April 8 and ends at nightfall on Thursday April 16 in the Diaspora (Wednesday April 15 in Israel).

Because we are not Jewish, we weren’t raised with any concept of Passover. Nor do we have years of family tradition surrounding it to adhere to. Instead, we’ve kind of made it up as we went along. You could maybe identify “seasons” to our Passover celebration.

For instance when the kids were small, it definitely took on a character of being geared around them specifically. Then there were several years where we celebrated it with our whole Sunday School/youth group class. (Those were more like an exercise in controlled chaos.)

Last year I pretty much threw out most of what we’d done in the past and drew upon elements and traditions that I’d only just learned about. So this year I’ve yet to decide whether this year too is to be an upheaval, whether to return to past traditions, or whether to build on what was started last year.

Each year I try to take stock of where the family is at in every facet and then go to God with it to determine what needs to be emphasized that year. Its an awesome and humbling responsibility to undertake. Particularly if you try ti get real honest with where the family is at at that specific point in time.

For me Passover is as much about the preparation as it is about the celebration itself. But maybe that’s exactly how it should be. I nervously await where this year’s might go.

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