It's a very busy time in the kitchen as I like to prepare ashkenazi recipes that my Mother traditionally used to make and Amir likes to cook sephardi recipes from his side of the family.
Passover, a time for Jewish people to remember the liberation of slavery and to remind ourselves of the suffering endured. So, I am not sure if I am supposed to feel guilty or not by immensely enjoying all the traditional biscuits and cakes baked during this festival.
My Mother-in-law will be coming to stay with us in England for 5 weeks as she does every Spring and she will be bringing something with her of great importance. Prasinagua - the best translation of this I can give is 'green growing without water'. It's written in Ladino. As Yiddish is to the ashkenazi Jews, Ladino is for the sephardi Jews. In Istanbul, Amir's Mum will go by the edge of the road side to search for wild grass. She then picks the grass and dries it. When dry, she will make little parcels with the grass and bring them to England. It amazes me that she hasn't been stopped and searched by customs who may be under the impression that she is smuggling in weed or some kind of drug!
On arrival at home in England the first thing she does is give all of us a little bundle of grass to put in our purses or wallets. She then scatters some of the dried grass all over the hallway by the front door and tells me not to clean it up for 24hrs! She has great pleasure in giving us the parcels of grass and tells the children every year that the grass will bring good luck and prosperity in to our lives. This grass grows wild and in abundance and shows the coming of summer and so with it, it will bring an abundance of luck and prosperity in to our home, inşallah, we hope.
In Greek the word prasino means green and one of the recipes we traditionally eat over passover is meatballs containing leeks. Leeks in Turkish is pirasa. So there is a connection with the meaning of prasinagua.
So, to all of you who celebrate Passover and all of you who don't, I wish you prosperity, luck and all good things to enter your homes and in to your lives.
I look forward to sharing our Passover recipes with you. XXXX
This is a bundle of grass still kept in my purse from last year.
*I will welcome any other information about prasinagua and please let me know if any corrections are needed.*
Enjoyed this read, thanks. I really did wonder what you were about to introduce us too.
ReplyDeleteI have received the following information from Eva Goldenberg. Thank you Eva.
ReplyDeleteI searched on Google and found something in Ladino, which I do not speak nor understand:
http://esefarad.com/?p=22237
And my uncle's translation to that one is:
“One of the Pesach customs amongst sephardis that seems to be have been forgotten is that of bringing home, on the eigth day [of Passover] the “prasinagua”, which was grass with wide leaves, to indicate that we had already crossed the Red Sea (Yam Suf) and that summer was near, wishing that the house should be full of rich means of subsistance and prosperity just as grass is in the fields. They used to call it “prasinagua” because [the grass] had large leaves, like those of leeks. We, I and my [small] sister, were busy filling the house with this grass.
Does anybody remember this custom?”
THANK YOU Lisa and Amir for letting me discover one of my family's tradition which was about to die!
Hag Sameah to all, Eva