Nineteenth Annual Ten Commandments Post

For this year's Ten Commandments post, I thought I would highlight a certain scene from the movie that has a significance for people even to this day.  The night before the Israelites were to leave Egypt, they were instructed to paint lamb's blood around their door.  In this way, God would "pass over" their house and not inflict the final plague decreed by the Pharaoh; that each firstborn should die.  And on that night, they had one last meal before they left.  This has become known as Passover.  Here is the scene from the movie where they were celebrating this Passover meal:

 

The Passover meal is celebrated to this day.  My church, even though we're Southern Baptists, celebrate it at our church as well.  Here are some pictures that show what it is like.  These pictures were taken in 2022 when we still had our pastor as pictured below.  He led the ceremony.  In this first picture, he is talking about the unleavened bread, which had to be prepared without yeast because of the haste needed:

Here is what we used for the unleavened bread, it was like an unsalted cracker:

 

At this point, a drop of wine, or in our case, grape juice, is used to represent the ten plagues:

We dip the end of our finger in the wine and put a drop on a napkin to signify each plague:

Some of the foods the Israelites must have eaten will have included some of these items.  Dates, prunes, olives, grapes, eggs, lamb meat and possibly two different soups:  Matzah Ball soup and Lentil soup:

 

A closeup of the Matzah Ball soup.  The Matzah balls are made of matzah meal, eggs and fat and served in a flavored chicken broth:

 

               

 

So, that is the typical Passover meal.  I celebrated it at my church this past Wednesday evening.  Of course, during my annual viewing of The Ten Commandments movie this Sunday night, my personal tradition for Easter has been a meal of ham and Baby Swiss cheese on rye bread, mashed potatoes and stuffing or a vegetable of some kind.  Something like this:

 

Enjoy the dinner and the movie!

Thirteenth Annual Ten Commandments Post

This post could just as easily be called "Family Memories."  That's because every year at Easter, my family would gather and enjoy a meal that always included ham and then we would watch the movie The Ten Commandments.  Whatever else we would do that day depended on the period of time it was held.  This, then, are some pictures and memories from the past that include my family members.  Memories which became engrained in my life.

Easter eggs from 1978.

Easter eggs from 1979.  Notice the one painted chrome silver in the middle.

The annual showing of The Ten Commandments on ABC from 1980.

My Mom and Dad on Easter 1981.

My brother Matthew with his Easter basket, in 1986.

Mom and Dad clowning around on Easter 1991.

Easter 2008 ham.

Playing Wii on Easter 2008.

More Easter eggs, from 2018.

What it all boils down to - ham and The Ten Commandments.  I think it's time to make some more memories.