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''Matzah'', or unleavened bread, is eaten in memory of the Jews escaping Egypt in haste and thus having no time to wait for the dough rise. ''Zeroa'', or a lamb shank, commemorates the lambs whose blood the Jews used to smear on their doorposts as an identification marker just before the escape, as well as those later sacrificed in the Jerusalem Temple; nowadays, it’s usually substituted for with a chicken wing. ''Beitzah'', or a chicken egg that is hard-boiled and then additionally roasted, is another memento of temple offerings. Two kinds of bitter herbs – ''maror'' and ''hazeret'' – symbolize the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. Ashkenazi Jews (those from northern Europe) typically use romaine lettuce for ''hazeret'' and horseradish (often dyed red with beetroot juice in the style of Polish beet-and-horseradish relish) for ''maror'' – even though horseradish is neither bitter nor a herb. ''Haroset'' is a sweet paste of apples, walnuts and honey, meant to stand for masonry mortar to remember that Jewish slaves in Egypt were mostly used for construction work. Finally, the seventh food is ''karpas'', or some green vegetable (e.g., parsley leaves) which is dipped in salted water, a symbol of the tears shed by the Jews in slavery. All of this is paired with wine.

While the seder table has the unleavened ''matzah'', the Easter basket contains sourdough bread and yeast-raised babas. The lamb shank is replaced with a chicken wing for Passover and with ham or pork sausage for Easter. And a lamb figurine lest anyone forget it’s all about the Lamb of God, not a Pig of God. Rather than a roasted egg, the Easter basket has dyed or painted eggs. Bitter herbs have their place in the basket too, in the form of horseradish and black pepper. A bed of garden cress, on which the lamb figurine usually stands, can be seen as equivalent to ''karpas'', the green vegetable, while sugar or even chocolate may be taken as corresponding to the sweet ''haroset''. Salted water gets reconstructed as salt and water. And what about wine? Catholic priests have called dibs on that, reserving wine for use in the Eucharist, but never allowing their parishioners to bring any kind of alcohol for blessing.