Easter mish-mash is no Chrismukkah

The second day of Passover is about to begin. In another three days, Easter will dawn for Protestants and Roman Catholics. A week later, Eastern Orthodox Christendom will celebrate Easter by its more ancient name of Pascha. At which point there will be 236 days until Chrismukkah.

Chrismukkah, if you haven’t heard, blends Judaism’s Hanukkah with Christianity’s Christmas. It first cropped up on the Internet in the 1990s ? as a satire. Which it remained until the trendy television drama “The O.C.” breathed real life into it when its cast of characters celebrated the holiday in December 2003. The show released its “Have a Very Merry Chrismukkah” CD the next year.

At just about the same time, Ron and Michelle Gompertz, one Jewish, the other Christian, unveiled Chrismukkah.com. On the website, they say it was inspired by the birth of their “‘hybrid’ daughter Minna.” In their words, Chrismukkah is a “merry mish-mash, one-size-fits-all” holiday.

Kind of like a muumuu.

The website hawks Chrismukkah tchotchkes (such as a coffee mug sporting a Hanukkah menorah with candy cane candles, and frosty white “menorahments” with shiny blue and glittery silver Stars of David), greeting cards and, as of last year, Ron’s “Chrismukkah! The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook.”

Gefilte goose, Kris Kringle kugel, Blitzen’s blintzes or matzo house anyone?

Since they introduced Chrismukkah.com, I’ve more than half expected the Gompertzes to introduce a mish-mash holiday for Passover and Easter.

Just as the estimated 2.5 million parents and children of interfaith families in the United States face the question of how to celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, don’t they have to figure out how to observe both Passover and Easter? Especially when they overlap.

Laurie Schneider is a member of Westminster’s Reform Temple Beth David. Her husband Charlie is a member of Saints Simon & Jude Roman Catholic Church in Huntington Beach. When it comes to celebrating Passover, Laurie says she’s “not super strict,” looking more to “the spirit of it ? rather than to the letter of the law.”

She doesn’t undertake a major housecleaning as more religiously traditional women might do. She simply moves leavened breads, flour, cereals and pastas off a pantry shelf to make room for unleavened matzo, matzo meal and other foods that meet with Passover’s dietary restrictions.

Typically, the Schneiders hold a family Seder ? the traditional meal and narrative of how the Israelites won their freedom from slavery in Egypt ? on the first night of the eight days of Passover. On the second night, they attend the community Seder at the synagogue.

This year has required some flexibility. Since Laurie’s daughter had to work and Charlie was working out of town on the first night of Passover, they will celebrate their family Seder tonight. Which means they will miss the Seder at Temple Beth David with what Laurie describes as “extended family.”

Tomorrow, for Good Friday, which commemorates the death of Jesus, Laurie will prepare fish for dinner, since Charlie won’t eat meat on the Christian holy day. Some years, says Laurie, when the first night of Passover has coincided with Good Friday the main course of her Passover meal (traditionally beef brisket) has been salmon instead.

But spirit of the law or letter of the law, when Easter comes during Passover ? as it does this year ? Laurie says, “I can’t bring myself to make ham, although I will at other times of the year.” On Easter, Charlie will go to church alone. The family may later go out for brunch, but says Laurie, “It is not a holiday we observe with a lot of tradition.”

Which may hint at why no one is touting a happy mish-mash of Passover and Easter. Even though ? or maybe because ? Passover and Easter share far more in common than do Hanukkah and Christmas.

Both Passover and Easter celebrate freedom or, some might prefer to say, redemption. Passover remembers Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Easter celebrates Jesus’ death and resurrection, which Christians believe freed mankind from slavery to sin and its ultimate consequence, death.

During Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, many Christians observe what is called Maundy Thursday with an evening service that recalls the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples in an upstairs room in Jerusalem. His disciples being Jewish and Jesus a rabbi, the meal was a Passover Seder.

In the hours and days after this meal, according to New Testament scriptures, Jesus would be arrested, brought to trial, condemned, scourged, crucified, entombed and resurrected.

Seder means “order.” Think “sequence.” There is a familiar, traditional order in which the story is told.

The last thing to be eaten at a Seder is a piece of unleavened bread, or matzo. At the end of the Passover meal with his disciples, Jesus took a piece of unleavened bread, blessed it and broke it into pieces. Adding something new to the order of the story, he said to his disciples, “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Then he took the third cup of wine traditionally offered at the Seder, blessed it and added something new again. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you,” he said.

Then he gave his disciples what is known as the mandatum novum, or new commandment, from which Maundy Thursday gets its name: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

In Passover, Jews recall God’s mercy and observe his commandment to forever remember their redemption from slavery in Egypt, much as Christians, in what they call the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist or Holy Communion, now remember Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me.”

During Hanukkah and a highly secularized Christmas season, it’s possible to lose sight of Jesus ? or at least the Christian belief that he was not only a man but God and the world’s Redeemer.

At Easter, it’s just not. With all that Passover and Easter, Judaism and Christianity share in common, Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” remains the great divide. Passter? Eastover? Happy mish-mash? Probably not.