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Feast of Purim


Place or Community:

Purim is a feast that the Jewish celebrate. The Jews celebrate Purim or the Feast of Lots to mark the defeat of God’s enemies and a deliverance of God’s people.

Month:

Feast of Purim is a one-day festival in the Hebrew month of Adar which occurs in late February or early March.

Legend:

Feast of Purim is one of the joyous celebrations of the Hebrews. Though it is a minor feast compared to the seven major feasts in the Jewish calendar, it is celebrated with giving of gifts, alms to the poor and merry making.

Purim means “lots” in Hebrew because of the lots cast by Haman. ". . . Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them" (Esther 9:24).

Purim observes God's miraculous delivery of His people from annihilation by Haman. Haman’s anger grew when Jew, Mordecai would not bow and give respect to him.

To take revenge, he ordered the King to issue a proclamation that stated that all the non-Jews can kill the Jews and take away their possessions.

However, there are two incidents that saved the Jews.

First, Mordecai had saved the king’s life from his two servants who plotted to kill him and therefore the King rewarded him by bestowing a royal title on him.

Secondly, the queen, Esther urged the King to hang Haman at a banquet for his treachery. The days of Purim are therefore celebrated to remember the salvation God provided the Jews.

Esther the Queen, the King and Mordecai issued another proclamation that revoked Haman’s decree and the Jews got their revenge instead of Haman.

Thus the Jews began the Feast of Purim after a proclamation by Mordecai.

“And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, To establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor (Esther 9:20-22)."

On Purim, the Jewish people read the Book of Esther or the Megillah in Hebrew. An important custom of this feast is distribution of gifts and presents and alms the poor.

A costume carnival is also held to mark the occasion. Food and fun make up the occasion.

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