Purim Sameach!

I know this would've been a little more timely last night, but I didn't think of it until this afternoon.

Nonetheless, this evening begins Purim, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the story of Esther. Jews often dress up for it (in costumes, not ball gowns), and one of the things they do to celebrate is read (or act out) the story of Esther and cheer and boo raucously at the mention of Mordechai and Hamon. They make noisemakers (we shook a tupperware filled with popcorn kernels), and write Hamon's name on the bottom of their shoes with chalk and stomp to blot out his name.

I found a kid-friendly version of the story that leaves out the bits about genocide and the questionable beauty pageant, though we still managed to make Rolland cry with our first unexpected outburst against Hamon. Oops.

Another fun tradition is Hamentashen, cookies filled with your choice of delicious centers. (I haven't made this exact recipe, but with 2 sticks of butter, what can go wrong?)

Purim goes till tomorrow night (plus one extra day in walled cities--I'm not sure how many of you that applies to), so you can still celebrate God's saving His people (yet again) so that Jesus could be born through them to save the world!

Purim Sameach!