This year, Passover seder night falls on the most annoying holiday of them all — April Fools’ Day.
We don’t know the origins of this incredibly irritating and surprisingly ancient holiday in which people (and now, corporations like Google and Baskin-Robbins) famously prank each other, though in his “Complete Compendium of Universal Knowledge of 1895,” William Ralston Balch posited that the holiday’s roots may be Jewish. He wrote that a 1789 Public Adviser article posited that it dates back to “the mistake of Noah in sending the Dove out of the Ark before the water had abated, on the first day of the month among the Hebrews, which answers to the 1st of April.”
Whether or not we want to take ownership of April Fools’ as Jews, I do love the idea of marrying its humorous traditions with the Passover seder. I am a person who famously hates pranks, or really being teased in any way, and I usually spend all of April 1 in utter and complete dread.
And yet incorporating pranks into a seder sounds incredibly delightful. It’s a way to make the holiday meal — which can sometimes feel sluggish and long — more fun and engaging for everyone at the table, especially the kids. And it can even add in some tactile educational value (fill the house with actual toy frogs to recreate Egypt under the plagues?? My children would love that!).
With that in mind, I’ve asked my colleagues for their best Passover prank ideas, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Here are the best Passover pranks for your April Fools’ seder night:
Seder plate pranks:
Use a Cadbury cream egg or another Easter candy for the egg.
Use a stuffed chick for the egg.
Tell people that the haroset, herbs, matzah, salt water and boiled eggs are the whole meal.
Offer two types of maror — one mild, one intense. Then forget which is which.
Use candy for the seder plate instead of the real elements (here’s some fun inspiration).
Use a doggie bone for the shankbone (honestly we know people who do this every year).
Cut all the elements of the seder plate out of paper or felt, put them on the plate and pass them around like nothing is wrong.
Plague pranks:
Release real frogs (or just a lot of toy frogs!) at the seder, so that we can feel that we ourselves went forth from Egypt.
Put drops of red food dye in all the empty water glasses — when you fill them, it will look like blood.
Fill the house with plastic roaches for the locusts.
Put these cricket sound makers under the chairs for the locusts or start playing with this frog croaking fidget toy when no one is looking.
Lift up your sleeves to reveal some painted-on boils! Terrifying!
Pretend your power is out when your guests come in and that you’re just going to do a seder in the dark (maybe bring out some glow sticks or flashlights).
Food pranks:
Serve (fake?) bread.
Put the gefilte fish in the soup and the matzah balls on a plate.
Serve macarons instead of macaroons. (Hey, they’re kosher for Passover, so this is probably the most delicious prank you could pull!).
Decor pranks:
Set the table with all your Hanukkah decorations, menorah included, and ask who brought the latkes?
Pretend it’s Thanksgiving dinner with fall foliage and turkey napkins.
Set up a blanket with a seder plate in the living room and say you’re having a picnic-style seder.
Recreate the popular “dress for the wrong party” video for your seder — invite a bunch of guests and tell them to dress up for the wrong party, like a graduation or a bachelorette party, but keep some of your guests in the dark to make them extra-confused.
Elijah pranks:
Hire an actor to be a DoorDash delivery person named Elijah.
Have someone come in dressed up as the Easter Bunny and introduce themselves as Elijah.
Try to sit on Elijah’s chair and pretend you can’t because the ghost of Elijah is there.
Randomly empty other people’s wine or juice cups when they’re not looking and when they ask where their wine has gone say it was probably Elijah (make sure they still get their four cups!).
Afikoman pranks:
Don’t actually hide the afikomen, and watch people search… forever.
Hide matzah everywhere and insist none of them are the afikomen.
Haggadah pranks:
Replace the page of the Passover story in one person’s haggadah with an excerpt from “Moby Dick” (or other unexpected book of your choice) and then call on them to read it during seder.
Put a haggadah cover on a different book and put that around the table — it can be anything from a Superman comic to the latest issue of People Magazine.
Read the haggadah in Pig Latin.
Musical pranks:
Recruit a few people to start singing something completely random at a time when everyone is expected to sing something else — sing Cher’s “Strong Enough” when you’re about to start “Dayenu,” or “Closing Time” by Semisonic when you’re about to wrap up with “Chad Gadya.”
If you have a young baby at your seder, record a young kid doing the Four Questions ahead of time, and then when it’s time, put your phone behind the baby in a high chair and play it so it looks like the baby is doing it.
Replace the haggadahs with printed versions of Kveller’s Passover Parody Songbook (available here for digital download!) and randomly break into song.
Creating Jewish Connection All Year. We may have closed the door on Passover, but our doors stay open thanks to you! Your support ensures that laughter, community, and Jewish joy remain accessible for all.
