Today, I welcome author Alyssa Lyons! Don’t forget to say hi 🙂
We just finish a holiday weekend here in Lynchburg, Virgina. The home of Jordan Davis and Grayson Trent in the Jordan Davis Mysteries celebrated two holidays. 2012 is one of those periodic years when the first night of Passover falls on Good Friday.
Over at the synagogue that Jordan and the children attend, Friday night was the night of the annual community Seder. This is the traditional meal where the story of the exodus from Egypt is retold explaining how this event turned the Children of Israel into a unified people. This year, instead of a catered meal, the synagogue members had a managed pot luck. Jordan, Gray, and the kids brought a Sephardic lamb main dish that was a specialty of Jordan’s mother.
A lamb shank and a roasted egg are placed on the ceremonial Seder plate in recognition of the Paschal lamb sacrifice made in the spring in the days when the Temple stood. During Passover, which lasts eight days, Jews don’t eat leavened bread or other baked goods. This is in remembrance of in which the haste the Jews left Egypt. One day they were there and next on the run, unable to wait for their bread to rise and therefore baked it still flat. At the Seder, they drink four glasses of wine in honor of God’s promises of freedom and deliverance.
If any of those symbols sound familiar, many Christians believe that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder and that Jesus used the unleavened bread and wine already on the table to illustrate his message. (Communion wafers are made from the same ingredients as is matzah.) Jesus is compared to the lamb of the Paschal sacrifice, and in some languages name of the Easter holiday is based on the word “Paschal.”
On Easter Sunday, the hundreds of churches in Lynchburg are packed with worshippers. Those with crosses on the lawn, usually draped with a purple stole, had a black stole on Good Friday and now a white stole on Easter to honor the Resurrection.
On Easter Sunday, Lynchburg shuts down. We say that nothing is open for business except Church, IHOP, the movies, and Walmart.
Ah, the movies. Jordan and Gray took the kids to see “The Hunger Games.” Oh, and they loved the movie. However, the family had read the trilogy together, so the movie and discussion afterwards was very spirited.
On Sunday night the Trents gathered in the family room to watch the first Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the season. Spring Break begins on Monday, so the kids can stay up late, although Kiki fell asleep during the sixth inning and Gray carried her up to bed, their large Main Coon, BB, trailing behind them. And the war between Kiki and Paul over whom BB loves most continues.
You can read about Jordan’s adventures in solving crime “Southern Style” in Last Wishes, Clubbed to Death, & Stabbed & Slabbed.
You can reach Alyssa at her website and blog: http://www.alyssalyons.com
Her books are available at http://www.blackopalbooks.com and all major e-book retailers.
Michelle, thank you so much for inviting me. Jordan is such a fun character to write. She has her baggage–but which of us doesn’t?–and she’s unstoppable. Her love of life and people and her ability to live in the moment, makes her special to me. I hope you enjoy the books.
Alyssa thanks so much for stopping by! Characters with baggage make for a great read 🙂