Being Jewish, our family regularly celebrated Passover (Pesach) with the traditional Seder meal. (Seder being the Hebrew word for “order”.) The meal/celebration of the Exodus from Egypt is extremely old and observed annually all around the world. It is designed to involve children and teach them of the Exodus.
One tradition, apparently adopted in Hellenic [Greek] times, is the hiding of the “Afikkomen” to engage children. Per the Exodus, the Hebrews lacked sufficient time in their escape from the Pharoh to allow for bread to rise. Thus, we eat “un-leven” bread or Matzoh. Basically a large cracker. During the Seder the leader will break one in half. One half is retained and the other is hidden somewhere around the house or venue. Toward the end of the Seder, in fact, the conclusion other than singing some songs, the children scatter around to find the hidden Afikkomen. The finder is then required to present his/her half and it is ceremoniously matched up with the other to authenticate it. The finder then is given some form of prize. For a while my dad would give “A million dollars!” in the form of a scratch off lottery ticket with perhaps a five dollar bill to offset the typically worthless ticket.
In our house on Creglow Street, Jackson, Michigan, we all would play along. At least one year we did the search parties in reverse. That is to say we boys did the hiding and father did the searching. Why is hard to say. During the Seder in question we wrapped the Afikkomen in one of Mom’s good linen napkins from the table and hid it in the living room which was adjacent to the dining room where we were all seated. For whatever reason we placed it on the top of a lamp in the living room, upon the support metal rods of the lampshade and below the line of sight. This was brilliant or so we thought.
At the time, when Father would do his hunt we would assist him by shouting if he were “hot” or “cold” thereby directing him toward or away from the prize. What we had not counted upon was the fact that the particular lamp in question was on a timer. While the rest of the Seder was in progress the lamp turned itself on.
Thus, we are all seated at the table whilst Dad lurked around the living room to the shouts of “HOT” or “COLD” when, Mother, who was seated at the East side of the dining table with a view of the lamp shouted, “Oh my G-d, it’s SMOKING!” Needless to say the location of the Afikkomen was more than apparent and Dad quickly retrieved it. Both the matzo and the napkin were “toast”. The event added to the levity (pun intended) of the evening.