<p>Wife happens to be in NYC again this year, so I just ordered my mun hamentashen. She is spending a shopping weekend with D1 before she goes out of the country for Spring Break (service oriented, not “girls gone wild”).</p>
<p>^^Well, hey, audio, backatcha! Hope your W and D are having a BLAST tearing up NYC! :D</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>I was surprised to find in Party City a set of finger puppets of all the Purim villains and heroes so of course I had to mail them to my S at school. He cracked me up. He said he had the bad guys engage in a fight against the skeletons I had sent him at Halloween time.</p>
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<strong><em>ROFLMAO</em></strong>!!! I found some cool Hanukkah finger puppets in either Party City or Bed, Bath, and Beyond once! </p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>I have a lovely King Ahaseurus (sp?) mask! Chag sameach everyone! :D</p>
<p>Funny - I’ve been working these past couple of weeks on Sunday School curriculum about Queen Esther. Would anybody be willing to tell me how Purim is celebrated?</p>
<p>Hi Binx,
I’ll try to give a brief explanation. There are special services in synagogue for Purim. The book of Esther is read in Hebrew. People are urged to come to services in costume-anything goes in many places, or sometimes there are “themes” that people are urged to follow in terms of their dress. As the book of Esther is chanted, people in the congregation have noisemakers which they use whenever the name of the bad guy, Haman, is chanted. The object is to drown out the sound of his name being said. Haman wore a 3 cornered hat, and a pastry which is a symbol of the holiday is made in the shape of a triangle. The pastry is called “hamantaschen,” and is filled with one of several different fillings, generally either apricot, prune,poppy, or chocolate chips.</p>
<p>Be Happy, It’s Adar!! (name of Hebrew lunar month)</p>
<p>Adding to Momof3sons nice post above re: Purim customs:</p>
<p>Food baskets are given to those in need; each person should give away two baskets.</p>
<p>A key element of the Esther story is that the Jewish people were about to be annhialated in Persia (modern-day Iran), where a Jewish woman was wed to the Persian king who was unaware of his Prime Minister (Haman)'s plan to kill all the Jews in the kingdom. Haman’s objection to the Jews is that they will not bow down to him, so he builds a gallows upon which he intends to hang the Queen’s cousin, Mordecai. The queen steals away from the palace to warn her cousin. He advises her to have courage and out the Prime Minister’s evil plan. To do so, Esther violates royal protocols by approaching the King without invitation. She creates a banquet for her husband at which she identifies herself as Jewish and lets her husband know that a plot is afoot that would cause her and her people to die. Since he loves her, the King Ahasheuros (pronounced like a sneeze) puts a stop to the plan and has his own Prime Minister hanged on the same gallows intended for Mordecai. The King is considered a foolish King because of his lack of awareness of what was occurring in his kingdom. </p>
<p>The story is read in Aramaic, I believe, from a one-cyllinder scroll called a “Megillah” which means “Story.” Discussion in congregations includes the connections between the story text and global current events. Sunday Schools have carnivals and parties to celebrate this story of Jewish survival. </p>
<p>In Tel Aviv – big parades and costume events, very celebratory.</p>
<p>There’s a big theater tradition, too. The “Purimspiel” is a humorous parody of the Biblical text above. This year in our congregation, the Rabbi, Cantor and many congregants took roles in a “Musical Motown Megillah” where the story was retold in story-songs set to hits by The Supremes, Temptations and others. Lots of fun!</p>
<p>oops, story correction: Mordecai warns Esther of the plot afoot in the kingdom!</p>
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</p>
<p>It looks like momof3sons and paying3tuitions gave you the whole megilla! ;)</p>
<p>you forgot to mention that Haman persisted in seeking banned weapons systems and denied the holocaust ever happened. Common costumes for the celebratory event may include dressing as weapons, bombs, etc. Chocloate chips are a recent addition to the hamantaschen .</p>
<p>Thanks everybody. Obviously, I’m quite familiar with the Esther story, but Rorosen’s facts were new to me. 
I’ve heard of a “feast of Purim.” Is there a traditional meal?</p>
<p>I don’t speak Yiddish, but I know enough German to understand “Haman pocket” (kinda like a Hot Pocket?) and “Purim play”. The celebration sounds like a lot of fun.</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamantasch[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamantasch</a></p>
<p>My favorite Jewish pastry. I particularly like it with poppy seeds.</p>
<p>I love hearing about all these traditions and celebrations–thanks all!</p>
<p>P3T,</p>
<p>I grew up on just such stories from my own tradition. Your’s was very well told. I wish there was more of this.</p>
<p>The theater/parody tradition works out well because there’s never a shortage of evil/silly bad guys to make fun of. And if they happen to be Iranian, well, they <em>could</em> be direct descendants of Haman. The more things change…</p>
<p>This year we did a song to “Popular” from Wicked. It featured Bush & Ahmidinejad trading pointers on being (or becoming) Nuclear/Nucular. Hysterical.</p>
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OMG <strong><em>ROFLMAO</em></strong>!!! 
(My cell phone rings “Popular”!!! 
)</p>
<p>Irishforever wrote, “I love hearing about all these traditions and celebrations–thanks all!”</p>
<p>Same here! I still remember starting up a public school unit on St. Patrick’s Day for my First and Second Graders, taught in the Catskill Mountains.</p>
<p>To assess the prior knowledge of a room full of Pedro’s and De’quan’s, and only a few McMann’s, I opened with, “What do you know about St. Patrick’s Day?” </p>
<p>Eager hands shot up all over the room: " I KNOW!! The bakeries sell green bagels!"</p>
<p>Woops, the Megillah IS written in Hebrew, not Aramaic.
My apologies to Israeli readers and Mel Gibson (I know he’s lurking…)</p>
<p>Made a big batch of hamentaschen over the weekend – yum!!! Have done apricot and prune so far, now on to more A & P, cherry and raspberry. I will let my younger son make the lemon filled and apple hamentaschen. No poppy eaters in this house.</p>
<p>I would pay big $$$ to find Lubavitcher chocolate-dipped macaroons around us! My FIL used to go to Brooklyn to get them and they were pure coconut heaven dipped in dark chocolate.</p>