This is not a joke: The first night of Passover 5786/2026 begins on April Fools’ Day. Like Tu BishGroundhog’s Day before it, Passover Fools’ Day is a time (we’ve decided) to really lean into the joy of meshing two completely unexpected holidays together. So why not have as silly a seder as possible?
As it turns out, it seems that you, our dear audience, are already having some fairly silly seders. We decided to poll our Instagram audience with the question, “What is your silliest Passover tradition?” In response, we received a delightful mishmash of creative interpretations of Elijah, Moses and the plagues, unusual song choices and just outright uproarious chaos.
Read on for our favorite silly Passover seder traditions, as suggested by our audience. Any number of these would be a perfect addition to your Passover Fools’ Day and make for a very silly seder indeed.
Extremely silly Passover traditions:
“Matzah bread houses (think gingerbread houses but with matzah, veggies, cheese/meats…)”
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“Instead of an Angel of Death for the last plague, someone would come out in a Darth Maul costume and slay the first born sons with his red lightsaber.”
“My dad would throw ping pong balls at us when we got to the plague of hail.”
“Throwing marshmallows at each other for hail during the 10 plagues.”
“We always have a silent jam session during the mention of the ‘band of emissaries of evil’ section.”
“Cracking the hard boiled egg on our foreheads.”
“Mad Libs for the Magid.”
“My whole family hides plastic toy frogs in each other’s shoes, purses, cups, etc.”
“Smoke maryjay with my family and friends to ‘open’ our stomachs.”
“Referring to anything my dog’s looking for or chewing on as the afiBONEn.”
“We hide the afikomen in the space time continuum.”
“We end the seder by singing ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.’”
“We sing ‘Charlie and the MTA’ at the end so we don’t go to bed singing Chad Gadya.”
“My dad has a full manila folder full of Passover jokes that he collects and reads every year.”
“Readers pick random accents out of a cup and have to read the haggadah in that style.”
“We rap (in English) the entirety of the ‘And Thus it Happened at Midnight!’ section of the haggadah. Our favorite line has always been, ‘You terrified Midian with a loaf of bread in a dream at night!’ because what does that MEAN?”
“We have an edition of the Rabbi Nathan Goldberg Haggadah from the ‘70s that has multiple misspellings, and we are all obligated to read the words as they appear (for example, ‘fruitful’ is replaced with ‘frutiful.’”
“We sing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Promised Land,’ accompanied by a guitar and harmonica.”
“‘Egyptian Idol’ — everyone has to write and perform a song about Passover!”
“My dad puts on a white tablecloth and walks in when we open the door to Elijah, then acts surprised when the little kids pull it and find out it’s him.”
“We have sticky little frogs that we throw at the ceiling (my mom doesn’t like that one).”
“My family closes out our seder by going around and making everyone try to do ‘Who knows 13’ in one breath.”
“Not a tradition, but I’m going to hand out sports bra inserts as kippot for my April Fools’ seder.”
“Night before Pesach: ‘Uncut Gems’ shot, ‘Prince of Egypt’ chaser.”
“My shank bone is a toy lamb from the Dollar Store with painted ‘x’s on its eyes. With a toy butcher’s knife.”
“FIL dresses up as Moses. With a hockey stick as his ‘staff.’”
“Second night seder is pajama night.”
“A second grade Passover play revised every year for 30+ years with new songs, etc.”
“My dad does a magic trick to make the afikomen appear — yes, it involves fire.”
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