Tag #156721 - Interview #78355 (Mrs. Gábor Révész)

Grandfather wasn’t the least bit religious, unlike our Grandmother Szidi. There was one very sweet sign of this. Grandmother insisted that they keep the Seder during Passover, and everyone had to be there, including the children. The three children were there, my mother’s younger sister Sári, who went alone because she never got married, my Uncle Sanyi with his wife and two sons, and while my father was alive, the four of us, father, mother, my sister and myself, and then just the three of us. When I was a child, I was there every year. I found it all a bit too ceremonious, and I remember that my cousin and I would be up to some mischief. We got under the table and pinched grandfather’s leg to make him laugh while he was saying his prayers. I remember us doing things like this. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously, and I had no idea about the meaning of the whole thing. For instance, I loved the matzoh, and we were happy that it was part of the dinner, which was always special. Besides, the whole family were together. We had traditional Seder food. I remember the chicken soup with matzoh balls. I used to make it myself. I always have matzoh at home, and I still always make it. I don’t remember the main dish, except that there were small bowls with all sorts of food in them. For instance, there was an apple and walnut mixture mixed with wine [charoset], and we all got to taste it. But only a bite. I also remember that my grandmother made a delicious cake from matzoh with prunes. It was very good. I don’t have the recipe. Needless to say, my grandfather knew how to read the Hebrew text. He also prayed and sang. And whenever grandmother went to the kitchen to attend to dinner, he’d always skip eight or ten pages, and we all winked in complicity. None of us were religious, but we had the Seder out of respect for grandmother. In short, her foster-grandchildren loved and respected her. My mother kept the holidays out of respect for her. I don’t know whether grandmother attended synagogue, but I’m sure she must have. Her being observant was not a source of conflict between her and grandfather, though grandfather just laughed at it.