My wife and I were tooling around in Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday, biding time until Best Buy opened and we could get a new DVD player.
And we came across the most reverent, respectful, appropriate religious gift we’ve ever seen: the Passover Bag of Plagues.
That’s right: toys that represent the plagues of Egypt! Disappearing ink=blood! Plastic frog for the rain of frogs! Dark sunglasses (hee hee) for the supernatural darkness. A cow oozing white pus from its eye sockets! (We think this toy may have been broken, but it was way cooler in its broken, oozy state) And my favorite, a little chintzy jigsaw puzzle of a dead child.
Our friend Jac is Jewish and blaspheming; he was mightily pleased with his Passover gift.
My favorite part of your link, Skip: Poll: Are you afraid of insects?
You would be if they were one of the PLAGUES OF EGYPT, fool! (Illustrated in the bag of plagues by a little plastic bug).
Reminds me of an old copy of The Watchtower, which I highly regret having thrown away: it contained an article about the plague of locusts that would herald the end-times, and talked about what God meant by talking about these locusts. Turned out that the author considered this plague to be metaphorical, and concluded that–I’m totally serious here–the plague of locusts referred to Jehovah’s Witnesses.
One of the families I do a seder with has two kids who, when we go through the plagues, toss around various things. They’ve got plastic frogs they throw, packing peanuts (for hail), sunglasses (for darkness), rice (for lice), etc etc etc. It’s kind of cute, but asking kids to throw things around is just looking for mayhem.
Interesting. I speak as an outsider here, I know, but part of what delighted me so much about the Bag of Plagues is just how inappropriate they are. I mean, the original story is quite powerful as a story of the Lord’s Vengeance and sheer bloodymindedness; it’s rollicking horrorfiction from my perspective, the kind of stuff that made me terrified of God when I was a kid.
On the one hand, I can understand not wanting to give your kids nightmares about a deity that strikes down children for the sins of the parents; on the other hand, if that’s what you want, it seems like you’d just gloss over that story, instead of making jigsaw puzzles of dead kids and stuff.
It seems vaguely equivalent to making a singing plush Jesus-on-the-Crucifix (another toy I’d definitely buy.)
Heh, I kind of agree; it’s a little too chaotic and playful for me, though on the other hand I’m all for finding ways to get the kids interested and involved (the four questions and finding the afikomen doesn’t do enough for these kids). I think that part of the story loses some… significance or something; I mean, I remember growing up Jew-ish and going to seders and feeling like the plague part was pretty heavy, drops of wine for blood and all that. Again, not something I’d chose to do if I were 100% in charge, but it is nice to see these kids being involved in some way.
monica, I paid 10 bucks for this bundle of joy at Bed Bath and Beyond; Google “Bag of Plagues” and you can find lots of online stores selling it. But then you don’t get the added pleasure of shopping for death at BB&B.
I’m going over to the Triple B at lunch to buy that sucker! My grandpa will get a big kick out of it, I’m sure.
I missed our seder this year, but I don’t recall us ever doing the part with the plagues. Probably a grown-ups decision made right around the same time they decided to start giving the kids grape juice instead of wine. (Yeah … my fault–but I was four, and I didn’t know I couldn’t hold my Passover libations.)
I dunno. The idea of a drunk preschooler strikes fear in my heart. :eek:
I’m thinking a bag of plagues would be nice to keep around the office. That way, when staff and co-workers get on my nerves I could just unleash some locusts or frogs on em. That’d learn em!
Unfortunately, I have no memory of it. I’m told there was an embarrassing face-plant in the matzoh, but it was before the era of video cameras at every family gathering. Mom says that it actually took her some time to notice I was behaving strangely, because, let’s face it, even at four years old, I behaved strangely most of the time. (And Mom, who was raised Catholic, really wasn’t paying attention to anything.) I would not be surprised if there was an impromptu recital of “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” because I was prone to them at that age.
Yeah … let’s not talk about that.
As the second-oldest grandchild, however, I ruined any potential Passover benders for the nine who came after me. Sorry 'bout that.
Mom says that it actually took her some time to notice I was behaving strangely, because, let’s face it, even at four years old, I behaved strangely most of the time. (And Mom, who was raised Catholic, really wasn’t paying attention to anything.) I would not be surprised if there was an impromptu recital of “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” because I was prone to them at that age.
)