“You’re Sephardic?” asked the southern baptist black woman of the patient in the next chair over thumbing a Parenting magazine. She’s had prolonged exposure to all sorts of frummies, and can even tell the differences, apparently.
“Yes, I am,” replied the woman politely, social smile gracing her face, “I’m Persian.”
“So that means that you beat the groom with a scallion at the wedding?”
W-wait a second there. Where’d she get that one from? Sure, I’m all for beating grooms with things at weddings, but scallions strike me as not particularly effective weapons. And who wants a scallion-smelling groom, anyway?
She a just a bit confused. Persian Jews do hit each other with scallions–at the Pesach seder, not at a wedding.
welcome back.
I never heard of this custom. interesting.
Did you ask her what she meant by that comment??
This was an overheard conversation. It would have been rude to let them know I was eavesdropping.
The minhag of hitting each other with scallions in a seder is during “Dayeinu”…and the minhag comes from the tiny Jewish community in Kabul, Afghanistan.
We adopted this minhag this past seder, to make things more interesting
My university’s Hillel House adopted this tradition for their seder. Imagine 100 undergrads swatting each other with onions.