I had heard that this is the day in the year where Jews are supposed to get drunk, and most do so. This is a bit weird, normally religions don't encourage their followers to drink. But the rabbi tonight explained why. Purim is a holiday to celebrate a miracle in Persia, as it is told in the Book of Ester - grab your Bible and read it, it's actually quite fun and not so long. The short of the story is that the king's councellor Haman wants to kill all the Jews, because Mordecai the Jew doesn't want to bow down to him. But Mordecai's (apodted) daughter is Ester, whom the king has just taken as his Queen. Queen Ester asks of the king to not slay his people and he grants this, and the same time he orders Haman hanged in the gallows he had built to hang Mordecai from.
But why drink wine "until you cannot tell the difference between Mordecai's blessing and Haman's curse", as one of the old rabbis put it? Because this "miracle" was done through wine drinking - the king, Ester and Haman was eating and drinking for all their meetings - and therefore Jews should do the same; but only to get merry and fall asleep, not get so drunk that they accidentially kill their friend (there're not so many getting revived these days).
And the day before Purim is a day of fasting, because Ester and Mordecai was fasting - but if this fast would fall on a shabbat, then it's the day before; and since shabbat starts on friday evening, this year the Fast of Ester is on (tomorrow) Thursday.
The kids get dressed up for Purim (like Danish kids do for Fastelavn),and there's a lots of sweet, coloured cakes. This part I hope to see more
of on Sunday/Monday.
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