Tag #155871 - Interview #78262 (sophia vollerner)

On holidays my parents went to the synagogue. My father fasted at Yom Kippur, but he didn't stop smoking on these days. We observed Jewish holidays at home. My father believed that my brother and I had to know traditions. We had matzah at Pesach and didn't eat bread on these days. There was a major clean-up of the house, but I don't remember looking for breadcrumbs with my brother. We had special dishes for Pesach that were kept in a cupboard. There was traditional food at Pesach: gefilte fish, chicken broth and matzah pudding with eggs and potatoes. There were strudels with jam and raisins, honey and sponge cakes. There were greeneries, a boiled egg and a saucer with salt water on the table. There were tall silver glasses on the table: my mother's dowry.

There were always four of us on the first seder at Pesach: our parents, my brother and I. During the seder adults drank four glasses of wine. My brother and I drank water with a few drops of wine in it. There was one extra glass for Elijah the Prophet 16 on the table. In the evening my father always conducted the seder. He said all the necessary prayers. I can still remember the words of these prayers, but I don't know the meaning. My brother posed the four traditional questions [the mah nishtanah] that my father had taught him. Our father broke a piece of matzah and my brother or I had to steal one piece [the afikoman] and hide it. I usually let my brother do it since he was younger. Later he gave it back to our father for a small ransom: a candy or a toy.