Seder Resources
Everyone
IF YOU ONLY DO ONE THING: EAT BEFOREHAND
The Seder puts an hour between Jews and food(!), so have everyone eat before they come over for Seder
If there are little kids are coming too:
- Ask their parents to put them to bed in the afternoon
- Warn other guests that your seder will be kid-focused, so that there are no disappointments
- Start early (in Melbourne this year, after 6:37pm First night and after 6:35pm Second night)
- If you’re leading the Seder, have someone appoint waiters so that you’re free to focus on the Hagaddah itself
- Know which parts of the Hagaddah are mandatory, and which are optional. Contact us privately for the list.
Also, if you need a reminder of how to put a Seder plate together, check out this excellent aish.com article.
Children
IF YOU ONLY DO ONE THING: THE NUSHIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK
Use a card system for rewards.
If you ask a good question, you get a card with a question mark on it. If you give a good answer, you get a card with an exclamation mark on it. If you sing along, you get a card with the iTunes icon on it. If you tell a good story, you get a card with a book on it etc..
All of these are redeemable for junk food at two different points in the night from the Nushional Australia Bank. If you don’t use junk food, I guess you could use prizes later on. Just don’t use nuts like the Gemara says, because everybody is allergic these days :-).
Appoint older kids ‘class monitors’
When I was a kid, the teacher used to make the class clown the class monitor. This often works with kids too. Aim the Seder at the younger children, but have the older kids as “class monitor” for the younger kids.
Do the ‘Mess Around’
Tell parts of the story with mistakes (The King of Egypt was called ‘Philip’) and have the kids listen carefully and correct you.
Take Plague Breaks
Help kids stay focused and fidget-free by periodically letting them get their wiggles out. Should your children’s attention start to stray, call for a ‘Plague Break’ and run a competition to jump most like a frog, move like wild beasts, or roar like a lion.
Act up a little
Dress up for ‘Avadim Hayinu’ in hardhats, with ball-and-chains. Build pyramids out of paper-covered boxes or matzah. Use beetroot juice with lolly fish in a half-covered cup for the Plague of Blood. Get back scratchers for the Plague of Lice. Red jelly beans inside white marshmallows for the fire-and-ice Plague of Hail. Eye masks or sunglasses for the Plague of Darkness. Nerf guns for Death of the Firstborn. Make a diorama of the Egyptians chasing after the Jews, put it in a baby bath, and pour a bucket of water over them all!
Have a Matzah Match
Before the Seder, write matched pairs of Passover words on index cards. For example, write ‘Hillel’ on one card and ‘sandwich’ on another; ‘Ten’ on one card and ‘Plagues’ on another. Keep going: four/questions; matzah/ball; Elijah’s/cup — until you have enough cards to secretly stash one under every guest’s plate. Sometime before dinner, tell everyone to lift their plates, look at the card and track down their matching half.
Teens (and adults!) with attitude
IF YOU ONLY DO ONE THING: SPRING ONIONS DURING DAYENU
When the Jews left Egypt, they complained that they missed the spring onions they had in Egypt, which was a big mistake, because what they got by leaving was much better than spring onions!
As a result, there’s a Yemenite tradition to hand out spring onions, and hit each other with them during Dayeinu, our song of gratitude for the miracles that happened once we left Egypt.
We’ve added three rules though, to minimise violence:
- If you break the spring onion, you’re out
- You can’t hit the same person twice
- You need to sit for the verses and once the ‘Dayeinu’ chorus starts, you need to be back in your chair before the next verses start
Noises and actions for the after-Seder songs
- Do the after-Seder songs early if necessary
- Devise hand actions for ‘Who Knows One’ and sound effects for Chad Gadya.
Take a number
This is the 3,336th year since the first Seder, the night before the Jews left Egypt. Show your kids how long and strong our chain of tradition is. Make a chain of 3,336 paperclips and extend it across the house, or fill a bucket with 3,335 of something to show them that our transmission is long and unbroken.
Play the Love Game
Dayeinu is all about gratitude, so directly before or after Dayeinu, play the Love Game, where each person needs to say something nice about the person next to them.
Use conversation starters
Aish has a program that takes Mums and Dads to Israel called Momentum. They have put together a brilliant list of conversation starters for each stage of the Seder. You can download it here.
Host TV interviews
- Make a TV from an old cardboard box
- Have you or the children ‘interview’ characters from the Pesach story. ‘If you’re just joining us, the Plague of Frogs has just hit Egypt. We’re here with Pharaoh…’
- Or mix it up: have the person interviewed guess who they are, based on the questions they are being asked.
Call each other
Use a cardboard iPhone (or a banana) to pretend the phone is ringing and Pharaoh is calling. Conduct a conversation or have the children do so.
Other games
- Bingo: Use cryptic hints for older children and adults. For pre-readers, use pictures of familiar words mentioned throughout Maggid
- Charades
Knock it out of the park
Aish Australia's Seder video tutorial
How to make this year’s Seder both inspirational and fun!
Pesach Cleaning Made Easy
By knowing what and how to clean, Passover cleaning needn’t be a chore.
How to sell your Chametz
We can help you sell your Chametz easily here.
Aish UK's Amazing Seder Site
A one-stop shop for Pesach resources.
Saturday 12 April: Night 1 of Pesach (Seder night), light candles after 6.37pm
Sunday 13 April: Night 2 of Pesach (Seder night), light candles after 6.35pm
Monday 14 April: Yom Tov ends at 6.34pm
Friday 18 April: Night 7 of Pesach, light candles at 5.31pm
Saturday 19 April: Night 8 of Pesach, light candles after 6.27pm
Sunday 20 April: Yom Tov ends at 6.26pm, Pizza Time!
