Q: I have heard that the bread used in the Seder is pierced and striped. If so, why do they make it that way? What does it look like?
A: It is true that the "bread" used in the Passover Seder is pierced and striped. It could be that you didn’t notice the reference in Jewish web sites because the usual name for this bread is Jewish circles is "matzah." It is a kind of bread made without leaven (see Leviticus 23:6), so it is very flat and crispy – more like a cracker than what we normally think of as bread. Before the dough is baked, it is pierced using a special tool which forms rows of holes. The holes are there for practical reasons – probably the same reason saltine crackers have holes. They keep the matzah flat and crispy. I don’t think the holes were ever meant (humanly speaking) to signify anything, but they do provide an apt picture of the pierced Messiah!
Baking the pierced dough tends to make it buckle into low ridges. The higher areas darken more than the shallows in between, and that creates a striped effect. Some matzohs look more striped than others.
You can get an idea what matzah looks like by checking out our the Passover Pages on our web site at:
http://www.amfi.org/passoveridx.htm
The background for the opening page was made by scanning an actual piece of matzah!
The cups of wine are usually just called "The First Cup, The Second Cup", etc. The phrase "Cup of Redemption" comes the Midrash (a collection of ancient Jewish homilies), and is not the sort of phrase people use in everyday life.