I'm half-Jewish, but I was raised mostly Jewish. We went to synagogue instead of church and wore Star of David necklaces instead of crosses, but my mom (the Jewish one) incorporated some of the more secular Christian traditions into our family observances. We had the occasional Christmas tree, we ate lentil soup flavored with pork sausage at Chanukah and our Passover seder plate usually boasted a hard-boiled egg dyed some lovely pastel shade.
But since I always identified pretty strongly with my Jewish half and ended up marrying a full-blooded member of the tribe, I've been raising Z and A as Jews--fairly secular Reform Jews, but Jews nonetheless. So I was pretty psyched to hear Z Skyping with my Mom (Nanny) this morning.
Nanny: Do you know what holiday is today?
Z: I don't have school today.
Me: Yes, but you never have school on Sunday.
Nanny: What holiday is it today?
Z: It's Passover! It's the Passover holiday. We eat matzo on Passover.
Nanny: Well, yes, it's still Passover, but what holiday has bunnies and chocolate eggs?
Z: Easter! My neighbors have Easter.
Nanny: Do they have an Easter egg hunt?
Z: ?!? [She's utterly bewildered as she's never heard of or participated in an Easter egg hunt]
Nanny: Do they look all over to find hidden eggs?
Z: Um, they gave me some jelly beans, but I didn't like them.
From NPR: They Tried to Kill Us, We Survived, Let's Eat
