Pesach Planning (Maggie)

[Sunar Chugani]

Because Passover was coming up the Multicultural Club was busy planning. Sunar wasn't sure if any of his club mates were Jewish or not -- would they have mentioned if they were? -- but nevertheless, it was important to honor and acknowledge the holidays of major world religions. 

That was at least partially what the multicultural club was for, after all. 

The club adviser had provided the haggadah, an old, worn copy of Passover Haggadah by Nathan Goldberg. But then the students had been told that they needed to learn some Seder songs, and, more distressingly, that they were going to have to make the matzah by themselves. 

Sunar was uncertain how that was going to turn out, but at the moment his attention was occupied entirely by trying to stumble through unfamiliar Hebrew. 

Mah nishtanah ha-lahylah ha-zeh mi-kol ha-layloht, mi-kol ha-layloht? read the words on the handout he had been given. He glanced over at Maggie, furrowing his brow. Just because he could speak well enough in several other languages didn't mean that he could just pick up on them without difficulty. The ones he knew were due to frequent exposure through family, not because he happened to be a linguist. 

"Do you know how we're supposed to pronounce this?"

[Maggie Probasco]

Maggie stood watching as Sunar tried to pronounce the word Chag ha-Matzot. It was simple, well at least it was to her. "It's relatively simple, and has multiple meanings. It could mean either one of three festivals celebrated during Passover, it could be Ch-ang ha-mot-zoot, which is the spring festival, or the other two. I assume we'll be celebrating the Chag ha-Matzot, since it is the spring festival." Maggie smiled, ending her ramble about the festivals, they were fun, and nearly all of the Jewish population in the U.S. celebrated.

"That's just one of the three festivals, so if we want to celebrate more we could. The others are the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Freedom. The Festival of Freedom is Passover in whole, so that would be a good one to celebrate as well." Maggie opened her book-sack so she could get out some of the Passover songs, since they should learn some of them. "Here's a good song," She walked over to him. "It's not too long, but it shows the freedom point." She pointed to the song named Avadim Hayinu. "It's simple too." She marked the page with her yellow ribbon, so that she could remember it was there that a song was located. "Oh, and it's pronounced how it looks. The word you asked about." Maggie opened her bag grabbing a pencil before she closed her book, and slid it back into her bag.

"Anything else you need help pronouncing? Or should I start helping with something else?"

[Sunar Chugani]

It's pronounced how it looks. 

Sunar found this somewhat less than helpful, given how confusing English vowel sounds were. Sometimes they were one sound, and sometimes they were another entirely! Who even knew?

On the other hand, what did he expect from someone with omnilingualism as a power (wait -- didn't Colton have Omnilingualism, too? Was he the only member of the multicultural club who couldn't speak literally any language that existed? That was too bad, but at least he still spoke more than most of the other Hammel students.) 

"Mmm. What's the tune for this song? Do you have like, a tape or something? Or can you sing it? I can't really read music soooooo...." 

All of his artistic talent lay in visual arts; sure, he liked listening to music, but that wasn't at all the same thing as being able to read it.

[Maggie Probasco]

"I know it. My father was Jewish, so my mother kept some of the books around, I wasn't supposed to read them, especially the Torah. The Torah is the Jewish holy book, equal to the Christian's Bible." She started to hum the tune, it was easy enough to pick up onto. Her fingers followed the notes on the book, which she had opened again to view the lyrics.

Once she finished the song, which was about a minute and a half in length, she translated the lyrics into English so that Sunar could understand them better. "The translation from 'Avadim hayinu lepharo bemitzrayim, ata – benei chorin'  is  'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt – now we are free'. Do you understand? When, if, we sing it, try and pronounce the Yiddish words right, if you need help don't be afraid to ask." She finished writing the words on her notepad before tearing the page out and giving in to Sunar.


"Don't forget the Seder Plate either, it is a major part. Feel free to try anything extra too that's listed." She pointed to the Seder Plate photo in the book, it was a major part of Pesach. "So, do you have any ideas of what other things we should do to celebrate?"

[Sunar Chugani]

Well, how about that. One of the other members of the multicultural club was Jewish. 

Or, had Jewish ancestry. He had heard that it only counted if your mother was Jewish, though, which seemed confusing. 

He looked over the photo in the book, his eyes lighting up at some of the new traditions listed. "So I think we need to include some oranges," He laughed. As a member of the GSA he felt that it was his duty to suggest that, since it was an option. 

"Should we invite the whole school? Maybe we could ask the headmistress if we can use the cafeteria..." 

[Maggie Probasco]

"Okay, we can use oranges." Maggie was writing down everything she would need to include in the Seder Plate. Maggie considered inviting the school, but decided against it. "I don't think we should invite the whole school. Maybe only the people who would like to participate can. That way we aren't in the cafeteria with one hundred people, half of which, probably wouldn't know what Pesach was." Maggie thought it would make sense to only have the people who knew what Passover was and what is was celebrating.

"We could post flyers around the school. That way people who want to celebrate can. We could still ask the headmistress to use the cafeteria, though. We have food, and I don't think that she would appreciate cleaning food from anywhere but the cafeteria." Maggie considered this for a second, before lightly sketching a drawing of what a potential flyer could look like. "Here, that could be one of the flyers we post." Maggie showed Sunar her drawing, it wasn't very good, but it gave all of the info.

"Maybe you could have an artistic streak and help me with some of the decorations. After all, if people besides us are going to be celebrating, we're going to need decorations." She started to open her bag and grab a pair of scissors, and then paused. "Should we call is Passover or Pesach on the flyers, I mean I already wrote Passover because it is more commonly known as that, but the correct phrasing of it is Pesach, but not many people know Passover by it's true name. So, Passover or Pesach?" She asked Sunar. She wasn't sure herself, she would go with Pesach, since it was the true name given in historical view, but it was more commonly known as Passover in the U.S.

[Sunar Chugani]

"I love decorating!" Sunar exclaimed with enthusiasm. He loved major holidays (both US and then those for his own culture and religion) because they were an excuse to break out the construction paper and scissors and glue and decorate his dorm. Sometimes he dragged roommates into his decorating, if they were willing. 

Not everyone appreciated having enormous yarn spiderwebs on the walls during Halloween, or pink hearts hanging from the ceiling during Valentine's Day, but he thought it was fun. 

Of course, those were all holidays he was familiar with and knew what sorts of decorations were appropriate. 

He grabbed his phone, tapping furiously in order to find some decorating inspiration while Maggie discussed the fliers. 

"Hmmm. I didn't know it was called Pesach until this club meeting...." He admitted. "But that's the real name, so we should use that." 

After all, he had insisted that the multicultural club use the name Diwali instead of Festival of Lights, so he would extend that same courtesy towards other people's holidays. 

"So...it looks like.......some people decorate with.....plague themes?" 

His first thought was that this wasn't very festive. His second thought was that he loved Halloween, which was also creepy, so maybe he shouldn't judge. 

"What does that even mean. Would we use plague doctor masks or what? Oh, it looks like frogs are popular, too. Why frogs?"

[Maggie Probasco]

It was good that Sunar loved decorating, the multicultural club would need all the artistic creativity that they could get. "That's good." Maggie gave a small smile, she was happy that he had a creative side, mostly because she herself had no creativity when it came to art.

"Okay, so we'll use Pesach. The name came from a plague that would "pass over" your door if you had painted the lambs blood over your door. Thus, forming Passover, or in hebrew, Pesach." Maggie had read the Torah multiple times, one of her favourite stories was about Moses, the one who set the Israelites free from the Egyptians long ago. Moses also brought the Ten Commandments, something that every Jew, Christian, and a few others obeyed still to this day.

"Well, yes, the plagues are how the Jews got set free from the Egyptians. The many plagues probed the pharaoh to set the Israelites go." The plagues were the entire reason why Passover- Pesach, was celebrated. The plagues also made the great pharaoh set the Israelites free.

"No, we won't be using plague doctor masks, save that for Halloween. The Israelites were protected by certain things that their savior, Moses, told them to do. One such, was to paint lambs blood over your door. Frogs were one of the first senders of the plague, and now they're very important because they were the second plague, and they helped to change the lives of many." Maggie was happy about frogs, they were agile creatures, and they saved the lives of thousands. A few little frogs could do so much, and they were so important.

[Sunar Chugani]

"Wait, so there's more than one plague?" Sunar screwed up his face in horror at this revelation. The plagues implied more than just one, which was distressing to consider. Just one plague was devastating nearly beyond his imagination; he didn't want to think about what more than one would do to a population. 

"So we use frogs and....red paint? Do you think the teachers would even let us paint red over the doors? Maybe we should just use one of the giant paper rolls in the art room. If they don't have red we can paint the paper red, instead. Or would painting over the doors be considered tacky?" 

He might have been the one with the artistic streak, but she was the one with the personal experience; he didn't want to decorate in a way that would be considered offensive.