Purim falls on the day before the full moon of Adar*, and we retell a dramatic 2,500-year-old story: A young Jewish woman named Esther became queen of the vast Persian empire, and when the evil minister Haman wanted to wipe out the Jews, Esther saved the Jewish community from disaster. It’s a wild tale of unexpected twists, so the motto of the Purim holiday — taken from a verse in the Book of Esther — is v’nahafoch hu which means “everything gets turned around.”
On Purim, we read this story of a Jewish community that triumphed over hatred. We play with contrasts between the familiar and the unpredictable, the visible and the hidden. We celebrate community and friendship in incredibly joyful ways, including funny costumes, wild noisemaking, and baskets full of treats.