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Just because there are empty gefilte fish jars in the recycling bin doesn't mean Passover is over.

Sure, by the time the sun sets tonight, many families will have already tucked away the haggadot and matzah covers until next year.

But there's an emerging trend in seders. No longer are the feasts limited to the first and second nights of the holiday.

Hundreds of families — unable to get together for the traditional seders on Wednesday or yesterday– will gather for a family seder tonight or tomorrow.

And from tonight until Passover ends on Thursday, no fewer than 14 groups around the Bay Area are having public seders.

In fact, if somebody wanted to attend a seder on every night of Passover this year, it could be pulled off without too much difficulty.

A family seder on the first night, then a community seder on the second night can be followed by:

A humanistic seder tonight in Albany. A lesbian seder tomorrow in Sonoma County. A Jewish-Latino liberation seder on Sunday in Berkeley.

A Jewish-African American seder on Monday in San Francisco. A women's seder on Tuesday in Burlingame.

Sprinkled among them, there's also an interfaith seder, a Sephardic-influenced dessert seder, a kabbalist seder and a few potluck seders, too.

And if someone actually did attend a seder every night of Passover?

"It'd be great by me," offered Rabbi Sydney Mintz of San Francisco Reform Congregation Emanu-El.

"But I would think they were a little meshugginah. I mean, how much matzah can you eat? How many times can you sing 'Chad Gadya?'"

Mintz herself will be attending "only" three seders. "I was asked to do a few more, but I had to put a cap on it. There's just so much more interest than ever before for all of these different kinds of seders."

For the most part, the new wave of seders is falling outside the realm of Passover's first two nights and final night, sometimes before the beginning of Passover, and most often after.

"It's very difficult to upset the pattern of the first-night seder with the family and the second-night seder with the congregation," said Rabbi Michael Berk, the S.F.-based regional director of the Reform movement's national body, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

"So a lot of these groups will turn to the other nights, which is understandable," he added. "And I'm not at all troubled by it. You couldn't do all the blessings that are specific to a yom tov [holiday], but the sitting around and telling the story and eating the same foods — I can't think of a strong halachic reason you couldn't do that. Even the Haggadah encourages you to tell the story as often as possible."

The new-wave seders that are blossoming the most are women's seders.

Groups of women are getting together and putting a feminist spin on the Haggadah, such as dedicating each of the four cups of wine to a famous woman in Jewish history, or setting out a goblet for Miriam, Moses' older sister.

There are no fewer than five such seders in the Bay Area this year on a public scale, and numerous other smaller gatherings.

The Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay sponsored its second East Bay Women's Community Seder on April 10, and more than 600 women showed up. Nobody seemed bothered that Passover was still nine days away.

The S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation had a similar women's event April 13, and registration had to be cut off at 230. Led by Mintz and held at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, it was the first of what is sure to become an annual event.

"Most women grew up hearing so many stories about men in our tradition," said Mintz, "and some had warm feelings about that. But many felt alienated. It was almost a sin of omission that we weren't there, or that we were totally in the background when major things were happening.

"Like when we were standing at Mount Sinai, the women and children were in the back seat, the nosebleed section. It's a metaphor for why women are coming forward today and reclaiming their place in Judaism."

Both federation seders used the Ma'yan Haggadah, "The Journey Continues."

In 1993, Ma'yan, the Jewish Women's Project of the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side of New York, began holding pre-Passover seders to bring the ideas and images of women into mainstream Jewish life, always highlighting Miriam as well as Moses. The group started publishing its own Haggadah.

But that's not to say only women's seders are focusing on Miriam. More and more seders of all kinds are now setting out a goblet for Miriam in addition to the Cup of Elijah.

The new Haggadah of the Reconstructionist movement, "A Night of Questions," introduces Miriam in the second paragraph and returns to her in prayer and song.

Miriam is honored as a prophetess, a girl who foretold the Israelites' liberation from Egyptian bondage. She also guarded her brother Moses in the bulrushes of the Nile, and many years later picked up a timbrel to lead the ancient Israelite women in song and dance after they had passed through the parting Red Sea waters.

There are also writings about Miriam's well, a miraculous spring that accompanied the ancient Hebrews on their journey through the desert, sustaining them with water.

It is for that reason that Miriam's cup is filled with water, rather than wine.

At the East Bay women's seder, which featured an exhibition and auction of about a dozen Miriam's cups created by local artists, each of the more than 600 women contributed a drop of water from her own glass to fill a cup for Miriam.

Timbrels, or tambourines, are also a large part of the women's seders, said Riva Gambert, the organizer of the East Bay Women's Community Seder, which was held at the Oakland Marriott.

"Some people have a misconception that women's seders in some ways have a negative thrust toward Jewish men," said Gambert, director of education and culture at the Oakland-based East Bay federation. "But that's not true at all. I see the beauty and strength of this event as empowering women to see their connection to Judaism in the past, present and future."

Mintz also experienced beauty and strength. "It was a wonderful feeling that night. There were women from all over, every congregation in the city, Reform and Conservative, young and old. It was a great community experience."

And because women's seders often occur before Passover, those who attend can incorporate new ideas and themes into their own seders. At the JCF seder, the Bureau of Jewish Education provided a take-home seder companion, and 85 copies of "The Journey Continues" were sold.

"Our seders are not 'in place of,'" Gambert said. "They are 'in addition to.'"

Another feature of the women's seders is an orange on the seder plate.

"People tell many different stories about that," Mintz said.

The gist of the story is that during a conversation about women reading Torah and becoming rabbis, a man once mocked a feminist by saying, "Women belong on the bimah as much as an orange belongs on a seder plate," Mintz said.

So now that women are ordained rabbis, oranges are entering the Passover tradition for some celebrants. "It's becoming more and more an integral part of the seder plate," Mintz said.

The seder-plate orange is just one way tradition can be tweaked. The multitude of third-night, fourth-night and other-night seders is another way.

Discussing the strictly traditional Passover observance, Rabbi Yehuda Ferris, the spiritual leader of Chabad in Berkeley, said, "In Israel, you have a seder only on the first night, and if you're outside Israel, you have two seders."

Is the practice of additional seders halachically questionable?

"If people want to make even more seders, I've got no problem with that," Ferris said. "There's no problem with saying 'borai pri hagafen' and eating the Passover foods. But you're only commanded to eat the matzah on the first night, so if you say that blessing other than on the first two nights, it's a blessing in vain."

Rabbi Melanie Aron of Reform Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos asked rhetorically, "If a rabbi once said we could add a seder on the second night, then why can't we add all the other nights, as well?"

Aron's congregation is hosting two "off-night" seders: a seder for singles on the fourth night (tomorrow) and a Mizrahi seder on the seventh night (Tuesday).

At the Mizrahi seder, people will hit each other over the head with leeks to re-enact slavery and chase each other around to re-enact Exodus. Participants will also sample Middle Eastern-North African food that is part of the seder table, such as romaine lettuce instead of horseradish and halek, a Mideastern date-and-nut paste, instead of charoset.

"I think it's a good thing" Aron said of the proliferation of seders. "There's a balance in people's lives of wanting to be with one's family but still not losing out on the experience of being with friends and community.

"And also, more and more adults are becoming spiritual seekers. A traditional seder with their family using the Manischewitz Haggadah might no longer be what they're really looking for as a spiritual experience."

Mintz said the increased range of seders also cater to anyone who can relate to struggles for freedom, including Latinos and African-Americans.

"Redemption and freedom are at the core of our tradition," Mintz said. "And that draws more and more people, especially non-Jews, who want to be a part of the seder experience."

Local seders abound

Here is a partial list of upcoming seders. Please call for information about prices and advance registration requirements. Many have already stopped accepting reservations. TONIGHT Society for Humanistic Judaism. Traditional seder without references to God or a higher power. 7 p.m. Albany. (925) 254-0609.

Congregation Ner Shalom. Community potluck seder. Reconstructionist. 6 p.m. Cotati. (707) 664-8622.

Tomorrow

Russian River Jewish Community.

Potluck seder sponsored by a cultural-secular Jewish community. Monte Rio. (707) 632-5545.

Congregation Shir Shalom. Interfaith community seder. 6 p.m. Sonoma. (707) 996-4104.

Jewish Lesbians of Sonoma County. 6 p.m. Sebastopol. (707) 829-7181.

Bay Area Jewish Singles Hiking Club. 6 p.m. Los Gatos. (408) 395-3650. SUNDAY La Peña Cultural Center. A liberation seder in conjunction with La Peña's 25th anniversary. Combines Passover rituals with songs and wishes for freedom from oppression. Led by David Cooper, spiritual leader of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Berkeley. 5 p.m. Berkeley. (510) 849-2568. MONDAY Peninsula Temple Sholom. For interfaith couples and families. Reform. 6:30 p.m. Burlingame. (415) 292-1252.

Congregation Beth Am. Women's seder. Reform. 7 p.m. Los Altos Hills. (408) 374-8331.

Isaiah Project Seder. Celebrates freedom from slavery with a traditional seder that meshes Jewish and African-American cultures. Led by Rabbi Alan Lew of Congregation Beth Sholom and the Rev. Pastor Douglass Fitch of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. 6 p.m. San Francisco. (415) 957-1551. TUESDAY Congregation Shir Hadash. Mizrahi seder led by multicultural educator Loolwa Khazzoom. Dessert only. 7 p.m. Los Gatos. (408) 358-1751.

Peninsula Temple Sholom. Women's seder. Reform. 6 p.m. Burlingame. (650) 259-7799.

Keneset HaLev. Community seder in the kabbalist tradition. Jewish Renewal. San Francisco. (415) 543-6754.

U.C. Santa Cruz Hillel. Anti-sweatshop seder focuses on the struggle to end sweatshop labor conditions in the global economy. 6:30 p.m. Santa Cruz. (831) 469-7630.