The seder and the Haggadah were developed by a group of ancient rabbis who lived in the Land of Israel under Greco-Roman cultural influence. They did some cultural borrowing in crafting the Haggadah, using the Greco-Roman concept of a symposium as a blueprint and filling in that structure with Jewish content. A symposium was a seder meal with guests during which an important subject would be discussed and explored, and a specific number of cups of wine would be served. The hosts would issue invitations for the Passover dinner, which would state the topic for the evening’s discussion and the number of cups of wine that would be served. (The more potent the wine that a particular host served, the more he or she would be admired in community gossip). At the beginning of the evening, guests would get comfortable prior to the seder meal – reclining on pillows and cushions and preparing to eat and drink, talk and argue deep into the night. [1]


haggadah Section: Introduction
Source: https://18doors.org/the_seder_a_ritual_meal/