The Last Supper

Last night I was at a friends' house when her husband asked me what our family had planned for the evening.  I responded "We're having the last supper"  He pretty much looked at me like I was a nutcase and then said "really?"  Yes, really.  We are really having the last supper.  After a short explanation (afterwhich I think he still might have thought we were slightly crazy) we went home and proceeded with the evening.  It was so much fun and such a memorable experience for our family that I wished that everyone could enjoy having this tradition together.
So, here it is.  The last supper.  On the Thursday before Easter it is written in the bible that Jesus gathered with his apostles to celebrate the feast of the passover and his last supper with them. He introduced the sacrament and then later suffered in Gethsemane.  This is a very meaningful and important day in the life of our Savior and therefore very significant to us also.  So, on this night we prepare a semi-traditional passover feast.  We eat on the floor as they would have during biblical times.  We turn out the lights and use candles.  We even use old sheets and tablecloths to make outfits that resemble biblical attire.  And together we go back in time and imagine what it might have been like to be there at that last supper. The kids ask questions.  We read the account from the Bible.  And we all come away with new perpective. 

Here is what we ate for our feast this year:

UNLEAVENED BREAD

This was really fun and easy to make.  The kids helped me. We just bought a can of Jerusalem Matzo Meal at the grocery store and followed the recipe on the package for unleavened rolls. They baked for 50 minutes and went from this:

to this:

  BITTER HERBS and ROASTED EGGS

The "Bitter Herbs" that we used were romaine lettuce and horseradish.  The horseradish was make you cry strong so the kids just ate the lettuce. 

Roasted eggs are so easy. 

 Put them in a pan in a cold oven and turn it on 200 degrees for 90 minutes. 

 Then turn the temperature up to 300 degrees for 30 more minutes. 

When the eggs start getting brown spots on the outside they are done.

HAROSET

Haroset is basically just a fruit and nut mixture with grape juice and cinnamon mixed in.  In our Haroset we used:

Apples (chopped into small chunks)

Raisins

Walnuts

Grape Juice

Cinnamon

Dates (Those are dates on the side)

BROILED FISH

Okay, I know, they usually eat lamb for passover. But really, my children won't eat it.  So, since they talk about broiled fish and honeycomb in the scriptures we broil some salmon with dill, lemon juice, olive oil, and honey.  It actually turned out quite tasty and the kids were at least willing to eat a little.

DRINK: GRAPE JUICE

No picture for this one but we have apparently made it part of the tradition that one child must spill grape juice on the floor at the last supper every year. Last year I finally learned my lesson and decided we will never again eat near a carpeted area.  We set up our dinner mat on the floor in the dining area.

And here's what the feast looked like:

And you can

CLICK HERE

to view a PDF of our Last Supper Plans

 including the scripture references for the reading that we did and also some of the discussion questions that we had.