Jewish matriarch Masha Fisher spent last year’s Passover almost entirely alone for the first time in her 85 years.
Mrs Fisher, a widow who lives by herself, avoided using technology to celebrate because religious principles forbid it but she joined in a brief ritual at a neighbour’s front fence.
“I fulfilled the blessing of Passover without having a Passover,” she said, admitting without her neighbour’s kindness the occasion “didn’t seem like anything”.
But the traditional time spent with her family – celebrating the exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt – returned this weekend.
More than 30 of her family members, including 10 great-grandchildren, relatives from interstate, and everyone in between, attended a traditional Seder dinner in North Caulfield on Saturday night — 100 visitors are now allowed in homes.
“I am very thankful,” Mrs Fisher said.
The event recounts the story of the 10 plagues that finally forced the Pharaoh of Egypt to free the Jewish people.
During the celebrations, younger family members traditionally ask their older relatives questions about the meaning of the eight-day festival, which began on Saturday night.
A thin, flat bread called matzah is served while leavened food products are forbidden, a nod to the story that Jewish people fled Egypt so quickly their bread had no time to rise.
Read the article by Jackson Graham in The Age.