Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1897-04-22
THE FEAST OF PASSOVER.

Its Customs and IT'S History: What It
Means Its influence and Teachings
to tine Young.
Daily Argus last Saturday.
As we announced in yesterdays
ARGUS, the great Feast of Pass
over of the Jews, corresponding
with the Christian Easter, began
yesterday at sunset and will con-
tinue for one week. 1t is known,
also, as the feast of the %unleaven
bread And in every Jewish home,
everywhere, at this time, you see
the large, thin, round wafers-the
unleaven bread, which among the
Hebrews is called matzos.
1t is composed simply of flour
and water mixed thinly and thor
oughly, then pressed and baked in
ovens. In Jerusalem, as in the
desert of old, it is said that the
matzos is baked by the heat of the
sun.
The symbolic ceremony whieh
marks the celebration by the Jews
of the Passover, at which the I'M
leavened bread is eaten, is confined
vigorously to the home. There is
good reason for this. In the first
place the Jewish government.
when there was a Jewish govern
ment, was patriarchal and was a
unity, made up IN turn of families.
In the second place, the persecu-
ton that the Jews suffered in
Europe during the Middle Ages
cut off any extended public ceres
mony and the Jew, comparatively
at peace within the walls of his
own home, lovingly elaborated
with quaint customs the story of
the great deliversnce from bond
age.
Beginning at shutdown yester-
day the observance of the Passover
began and continues for a week.
But all day yesterday, especially,
the Jewish mother was actively
preparing FOR the feast. In the
first place the unleavened bread
must be made or bought, for SO
quickly and so without prepare
ton did the Jews leave Egypt that
they took with them merely their
cattle and flour and, on the march,
were compelled to eat bread made
of water and -four baked in the
sun. So to-day, although he does
not bake it in the sun, the ortho-
dox Jew eats unleavene1 bread. A
curious custom outgrowing from
this fact is the careful search to
destroy all the leaven in the house,
SO that none may enter into the
food. Indeed, entirely new dishes,
pots and pans have to be used
during this week, a set different
from that used during the rest OF
the year. For ONE leaven might
remain somewhere, in some way,
and it is better to undergo the ex-
pense of two complete sets Of
utensils than to touch the lip:
with leaven. A formal search il
made also for any leaven thai
might be left anywhere around thu
house, and from this search a Gus
tom like the Christian one OF
searching for the Easter eggs, hA:
grown. The children, who arr
made much of at these times, pro
cure some leaven and hide it, whi1'
to the merry shouts of the boy
and girls, their mother and fathe.
diligently look over the house IN
til the offending substance is found
thrown out and the house puri
fed.
At the Passover dinner, Away
eaten at the home of the head o
the family, the u1leavened brea'
plays an important part. Thi
dinner is a curious mixture of
Joyous feast, commemorative Q
the deliverance, while at tn
same time it typifies the affiictio
Of 1.-The f~orefathers in Egypt,
These ideas are intimately joiue
and Immediately after Kiddust
the festive benediction after tn
first cup of the wine that typife
earth's fruitfulness, beginnin
Blessed are them, o Lord, VIII
create the fruit of the vine,
comes the Hogadah, the Pass
over prayer proper, where tn
Reader, the head of the family
putting his hand on the matzo'
the bread, says Behold my des
ones! this unleavened bread is
remind us of the bread of afiie