Monday, March 29, 2010

ten


Tonight is the first night of Passover and, thanks to the helpful links supplied by Which Box, my seder will be truly complete, featuring ten nightmare-inducing finger puppets depicting the ten plagues visited upon the Egyptians (which, in case you've misplaced a plague or two, were: blood, frogs, lice, wild animals*, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the death of the firstborn)

You can see a picture of all ten of the creepy little puppets here. Hail is incongruously cheery and the Lion (the token wild animal) is actually kind of cute. Darkness is a frowny-faced house, a marked improvement over its prior incarnation, which resembled nothing so much as a racist cartoon.

But the pockmarked Boils puppet is pretty nasty and the color and shape of Blood look like a used feminine hygiene product. And (the title of this blog notwithstanding) let's not even get into the macabre dead baby puppet.

In fact, there's apparently a whole cottage industry of plague-themed toys. Like these plague masks (check out the Xs for eyes on the Firstborn mask) and this bag of plagues ("After the ten plagues, Pharoah never learns. But after the bag o' plagues your children will never forget your "special" seder.")

Plus, the admittedly rather adorable ten plague bowling set whose description encourages you to just try to pick up (and I only wish I were kidding) a "hail/death of the firstborn split."

The traditional thing to say at the end of the seder is Next year in Jerusalem! However, this year, mine is going to end with Next year, the ten plagues in delicious Kosher (and parve!) dark chocolate! Although pricy, they look rather tasty. Well, except maybe the Boils.






*Or perhaps insects. Depending on how you translate arov

18 comments:

areyoukiddingme said...

Those are hilarious! Who knew plagues could be so entertaining? Well, besides Monty Python, of course...

Anonymous said...

My favorite is how the children will giggle and shiver while eating the darling plagued. Now, I'm not Jewish, but I imagine that the plagues were not considered "darling" to anyone! However, I do plan to sell the plague bags at my next fundraiser. Fun!

Happy Passover!

-e

Kristin said...

I've had a bizarre fascination with these since I first found them.

LawMommy said...

It had not occurred to me until just this moment that chocolate (even dark chocolate) could be made without milk. But apparently it's possible, since it couldn't be parve with milk in it...(of course, my need for parve items is limited, (er...non-existant) so, it's not something I've ever thought about before.

niobe said...

@LawMommy: My thoughts exactly. In fact, I'm thinking that it might be worth the 50 bucks just to see how it tastes. Although I could be totally confused (not for the first time) and maybe there are many milk-free chocolates.

painted maypole said...

nothing like making something horrifying into something cheerful for the kids. it's kind of like Noah's Ark becoming this great kids thing... it's a pretty sad story, all in all. But hey! Look! Cute animals!

Tash said...

Oh, how I love these. To be a fly on the wall at your Seder.

And I'm just realizing that about 4 of these plagues have already visited Kindergarten this year. Hmm.

Trish said...

Wow, just wow. I can't imagine why a company would think it a good idea to make "fun and educational" toys about the ten plagues.

niobe said...

@Trish: And it's particularly inappropriate given that, as part of the seder, when you recite the names of the plagues, you pour out a drop of wine for each one from your glass, symbolizing that we recognize and share in the Egyptian's sorrow.

thordora said...

Is it wrong that I want that for me?

Sara said...

I want it for me too, Thordora.

The afikomen prize at my house tonight will be a toy frog. Dark humor and conspicuous cynical consumption rule in our house.

But yeah, probably inappropriate. A friend pointed out for the bowling one that you're smashing the plagues, not celebrating them, but I still feel strange about the cute little representations of living creatures pins.

k@lakly said...

I'm torn between wanting to make a wildly innappropriate joke about a guy and a cross and just saying I'm spechless.
I think I will stick with the later, and try to avoid a pox on my house...

still life angie said...

Hail looks like a clown, which in other manifestations seemed like one of the lesser plagues, but now is just horrifying. <>

Alexicographer said...

Wow. Just wow.

Magpie said...

I want to be at your next seder.

the dragonfly said...

After I read this, I watched my DVR of last night's Colbert Report...he actually had those finger puppets on his show.

Christine said...

i JUST saw these puppets at the store the other day!!! for some reason the lice one freaked me out the most.

nonlineargirl said...

Now I am feeling silly for just TELLING the story, instead of acting it out with finger puppets. Nice collection of passover stuff!