What is the origin of the Easter afikomen?
I have two distinct childhood memories associated with spring. One is of my older cousin hiding the afikomen, the dessert matzah, on top of the floor lamp that was too high up for us kids to see. He got in big trouble for tormenting the children, and we got the afikomen. The second was the time my younger sister ate a hole through the sugar diorama egg with the Easter scene depicted inside. My parents, who masked their laughter with a stern reprimand, believed her tummy ache was punishment enough for her deeds. These days I don’t hunt for Easter eggs, but I do boil a lot of them in preparation for Passover. Every once in a while I’m tempted to color them, just for kicks. The early Passover memory referenced above was from a time when my grandparents’ generation was still hosting a Passover seder, the traditional Passover meal, each year out east. It is a memory I cherish as I continue to build my own Passover traditions in adulthood. As my parents’ generation grew up and each child in
