Well, campus Hillel denied all knowledge of signing me up for a home seder, but put me on the list for the big communal one, so at least I'll have somewhere to go.

"Shaloha" was used as the 'theme' of the excessive double bat mitzvah my cousin (from Honolulu) and her cousin (from Detroit) (other side of the family) had. It involved a party with balloons of tropical fish and snowflakes, lots of relatives who all look alike and have the same names, more pickeled herring than I ever hope to see again, and great-aunts who asked if I had "found myself a nice Jewish boy yet."

Leaving wine out for Elijah: the prophet goes around to every household, and when the children open the doors he comes in and takes a sip of the wine; it goes down as everyone watches it.

Songs: Eliahu, Dayenu, Let My People Go. My family always does "There is a Man Come into Egypt," "Dona Dona," "The Kid"(title? a cumulative song about the father going to market to buy a goat, which gets eaten by something and then the dog chases the cat and the stick beats the dog and the fire burns the stick and ... and then the Angel of Death,with his ten thousand eyes comes and kills the butcher, and Gd sends an angel down which blows one puff of air and slays the Angel of Death).


Chocolate Pi (who should write that paper on Marx now so that she doesn't have to worry about the seder running late)