HUM 221: Tradition, family, 'what we do'

We're been talking about family in Humanities 221 lately, and how cultural values are passed down from father to son, or mother to daughter as in the case of Navajo poet Luci Tapahonso. Now comes a reminder that these values, and the role of families in handing them down aren't limited to Native people. I think they're universal.

In today's issue of The Chicago Sun-Times, there's a column by religion writer Cathleen Falsani that explores how Jewish religious traditions surrounding the Passover resemble American cultural traditions like Thanksgiving. The column is a review of a soon-to-be-released movie called "When Do We Eat?" Falsani says: "It's a classic holiday comedy -- in the vein of 'Home for the Holidays' and 'Christmas Vacation' -- but set around the Seder table at Ira and Peggy Stuckman's tony suburban home during Passover." Falsani explains:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Passover, or Pesach, here's the 10-cent version: It's an annual eight-day festival that celebrates how God delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

The Seder is a special dinner held on the second night of Passover (though it's held on the first night in Israel) where the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt is retold using the Haggadah, a special text that is read aloud during the meal by different members of the family (blood or chosen) around the table.

There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but that's the Judaism 101 version, and you get the picture. Long meal, long stories, lots of wine and prayers.

Family gathered around a dinner table. Sound familiar? To Falsani, it does:

Like how my family can't officially start Thanksgiving dinner until someone's dislodged the scary, gelatinous log of tinned cranberry "sauce" (preferably with the ridges from the can still visible) onto a saucer, even though no one eats it.

Or how my husband's family will play this toss-the-bean-bag-through-the-hole-in-the-box game on the front lawn for hours -- HOURS! -- at any and all gatherings.

And how our family watches "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" after Christmas dinner, always pausing at the part where Randy Quaid winds up before he kicks kidnapped, pajama-clad Brian Doyle-Murray in the butt as they approach the Griswold family's front door, to rewind. Twice.

It's tradition.

It's what we do.

It's part of our story.

Part of the Seder tradition is to invite a goy, a gentile, to share the stories and the history as family members read from the Haggadah around the Seder table. Falsani recalls:

Six or seven years ago, I attended my first Seder. A colleague invited my husband and me to her parents' home in Skokie. We were made to feel part of the family that night as we read the story of the exodus, asked questions, debated the answers, drank wine and ate a lot of food.

There were arguments about reading the Haggadah too fast or too slowly, which parts to skip, which parts to linger over. But what I remember best and most fondly about my first Seder are the family stories told along with the story of the Israelites. Contemporary stories of struggles, deliverance and redemption. Their stories.

My friend's father passed away the next year. I cherish that Passover. I can still taste the gefilte fish and the kishka, still hear the family praying together in Hebrew, and their laughter.

OK, fine. All right, already. But what does Thanksgiving or Passover have to do with Native Americans? Falsani adds:

"When Do We Eat?" reminded me of how important it is (or should be) for families to tell and retell their stories. To remember where we've been, what God has brought us through -- big and small, good and bad.

It made me laugh and almost cry. It also made me hungry and homesick.

In the end, I think, cultural traditions are about home and family, about what we eat and what we do. No matter whether we're Navajo like Luci Tapahonso, Jewish like the characters in "When Do We Eat?" or kind of Brand X generic American like I am, our traditions go a long way to define who we are.

Falsani, Cathleen. "Passover Movie Shares Family's Seder Stories" Chicago Sun-Times April 7, 2006: 30.