Purim

When it falls

The fourteenth of Adar, in late February or March; walled cities from the time of Joshua, Jerusalem above all, keep Shushan Purim on the fifteenth. In a leap year it falls in the second Adar.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

In Persia the vizier Haman cast lots (purim) to choose a day for destroying every Jew in the empire. Queen Esther, who had hidden that she was Jewish, was urged by her cousin Mordecai to go uninvited to King Ahasuerus, at the risk of her life, and reveal it. She did; Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the day set for destruction became the day of deliverance. The Scroll of Esther, the Megillah, tells it and never mentions God by name.

It is the calendar's carnival: costumes, noise, drink and parody, and the one day on which the tradition tells its scholars to drink until they cannot tell Haman from Mordecai.

How the day is kept

• The Megillah read aloud on the eve and the morning, with noisemakers (graggers) drowning out every mention of Haman's name.
• Mishloaḥ manot: parcels of at least two kinds of food sent to friends, and gifts to the poor (matanot la-evyonim), the two commandments of the day.
• A festive meal in the afternoon, in fancy dress; Purim spiel plays; the Adloyada parade in Tel Aviv and Holon.
• The Fast of Esther the day before, from dawn to nightfall.

At the table

Hamantaschen, the three-cornered pastries filled with poppy seed, prune or jam and named for Haman's hat or ears; kreplach; and wine.

More victory and deliverance