How to Celebrate Purim

The most rollicking holiday on the Jewish calendar, Purim marks the day Queen Esther of Persia outwitted her husband's evil henchman, Haman, who planned to kill all the Jews in the kingdom. Purim usually falls sometime in March, on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Costumes
• Jewish Cookbooks
• Poppy Seeds
• Prunes
• Baking Supplies
• Noisemakers

1. Read aloud the Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther, which tells the story of the playboy King Ahasuerus, his chief advisor Haman, and how Esther's wits saved her people from execution.

2. Make as much noise as you can every time the reader mentions the name "Haman." The idea is to drown out the sound of the name, so stamp your feet, shout, twirl noise-makers or bang drums.

3. Have your kids dress up in costumes and stage skits that tell the story of the holiday.

4. Give gifts, called mishloach manot, to your friends and family.

5. Serve Hamantaschen, cakes made in the shape of Haman's three-cornered hat and filled with prunes or poppyseeds. You'll find recipes in Jewish cookbooks.

Tips & Warnings

• Purim is known as the Feast of Lots because Haman chose a date for the mass killing by casting lots, or purim.

[osalita]

on 3/19/2008 I'm sorry, I did not mean to post the same comment twice. May G_d bless you all in your celebrations of Purim each year !... Janice

[osalita]

on 3/19/2008 Hello and thank you for this wonderful info on Purim, I am a Christian but I feel G_d is leading me to learn how to celebrate Jewish holidays. It is a great help to me and much of the needed knowledge of holy days is in the bible as well. Thank you, Janice

[osalita]

on 3/19/2008 Hello and thank you for this wonderful info on Purim, I am a Christian but I feel G_d is leading me to learn how to celebrate Jewish holidays. It is a great help to me and much of the needed knowledge of holy days is in the bible as well. Thank you, Janice

[sue-the-jew]

on 2/15/2007 It is absurd for the people of G-d to even talk about taking shots. We talk about "others" seeking our death in the past (Purim) and even in the present... but what we forget is that Ester fasted and sought G-d so that the Jews would be saved. How disrespectful to our past... we need to celebrate G-d's goodnees towards us and his great favor in the midst of other's seeking our lives. We are to be "set apart", why then do we try to heathenize this holiday by making it like Halloween and Mardi Gras?

on 11/22/2005 For a more adult celebration of Purim, take a drink or shot of alcohol everytime "Haman" is read.