Traditional Purim cookies hamantaschen.
On September 29th, our service will be about Purim, a Jewish holiday that celebrates the story of Esther, where she disrupts the plans of Haman - who was planning on executing all the Jews. Haman was the chief minister to King Xerxes, and the name “Purim” comes from the old Persian word for “lots” as Haman cast lots to determine the date for his massacre of the Jews.
The actual holiday of Purim falls in late February or early March and is often referred to as the Jewish Carnival as it is a holiday celebrated with revelry. Purim has been celebrated for centuries and is believed to have been in existence since the 5th century BC. There are four mitzvot (commandments) for celebrating Purim, as set by the sages: (1) hearing the megillah, the name for the scroll containing the story of Esther, (2) a practice known as matanot l’evyonim, or giving gifts to the poor, (3) giving gifts to friends and (4) feasting.
Based off these tenets, Purim has become a festival where people wear brightly colored costumes, drink, eat, give gifts aplenty and donate to charity. This is the only time excessive drinking is encouraged by Jewish tradition. The men are encouraged to get so drunk they cannot differentiate the phrases “Cursed be Haman” from “Blessed be Mordechai.” Among the food fare are hat shaped cookies called hamantaschen. The shape of these cookies is said to represent Haman’s three-cornered hat, though some say it’s to represent his ears or his pockets.
The reading of the megillah during Purim is a raucous affair in and of itself. Everyone is encouraged to make as much noise as possible every time Haman’s name is mentioned. The children are especially expected to make lots of noise, from shouting, clapping, stomping, banging on pews, blowing horns, or using noise makers called graggers.
Colorful graggers used during Purim
As Esther and Mordecai fasted for three days before enacting her plan to save her people, Purim is preceded by a day of fasting, heightening the enjoyment of the feast.
Interestingly, the date of the celebration is different depending on if a person is living in a city surrounded by a wall or not. As said in Esther 9.18-19:
(The Jews in Susa joined together for self-defense on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the month. But they rested on the fifteenth day of the month and made it a day of feasts and joyous events.). That is why Jews who live in villages make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of rejoicing and feasts, a holiday. It is a day on which they send gifts of food to each other.
At the heart of it all, Purim is about overcoming a terrible fate, which resonates further than the book of Esther. It serves as a celebration for any time the Jews overcame attempted genocides – particularly in 1953 when the death of Stalin occurred on Purim.
It is a time to celebrate God’s deliverance and the way God can work through people who happen to find themselves in the right time and place. As such, some smaller Purim celebrations occur for more localized communities for specific occurrences in their history, and families may celebrate their own personal Purims for their own experiences.
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