Aunt Cele’s Afikomen Gifts
Several years ago, T-shirts bearing the words “I Found the Afikomen!” were proudly worn by young children after the Seder nights. The shirt was a fad, which, like most fads, faded, but the sentiment lives on. The joy of finding the afikomen will never be lost. The customs surrounding the afikomen may be based on the Talmud’s statement, “We grab the matzot on the night of Passover, so that the children will not sleep.” Sometimes, the broken part of the middle matzah is passed from hand to hand until the end of the meal, when whoever has it can bargain for a gift. And sometimes, the leader hides it, and the children must hunt until they find it.
Growing up in Baltimore in the late 40s and 50s, my afikomen gifts hold special memories for me. I remember Seders on Cylburn Avenue, which my Great-Aunt Cele, hosted. Although Aunt Cele never married, she was the matriarch of the family, who treated her nieces and nephews as her children.
Around her beautiful Seder table, sat my beloved mother, her niece, and my dear father. My brother and I sat across from them with Aunt Cele between us. As the aroma of simmering chicken soup wafted in from the kitchen and we listened to the words of the Haggadah, our eyelids would droop. That’s when Aunt Cele started whispering to us about when and where to search for the afikomen. She made it a mystery, an exciting game. My brother and I knew that if we found the afikomen – and every year we did! – we would get a prize.