As Ze'ev described to a couple of our guests unfamiliar with the holiday of Purim: there was a good guy and a bad guy, the bad guy was an anti-Semite, he lost and now we eat cookies shaped like his ears.
I shouldn't be so dismissive, though. There are parts to this story and the traditions around celebrating it that I've really loved ever since my introduction to Purim through a Jewish Feminist Thought class in my undergrad.
It is the story of Esther and her role in preventing Haman from succeeding in his plan to kill her people, the Jews. I'm not going to get into the details, but I love two things in particular: that one part of the celebration is to drink enough so you can't tell the difference between Haman (bad guy) and Mordechai (good guy); and the importance of forgetting/remembering that runs through many Jewish holidays/traditions (as described in an article I still remember from that university class), in this case through using noisemakers to drown out Haman's name each time it is spoken when the story is retold on Purim.
And also, the cookies are delicious. (Ze'ev got creative and expanded from the traditional triangle shape.)
Ok, because I've been a bit vague about the thoughtful bits I like about this holiday, an excerpt from the article I mentioned for those who are interested...
From "Zakhor: Memory, Ritual, and Gender" by Norma Baumel Joseph
"One week before the holiday of Purim, the biblical portion that is read in synagogues is known as Zakhor.
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey after you left Egypt - how undeterred by fear of God he surprised you on the march when you were famished and weary and cut down all stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when God grants you safety from all your enemies around you in the land that your lord God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under Heaven. Do not forget! Deut 25:17-19.
Israelites are commended to remember this particular enemy and eradicate its name. There we have it - the contradicition in all its heavenly power. Remember! Do not forget! But also, blot out the memory! How on earch can a people accomplish both tasks?
The ritual of story-telling on Purim offers a further illustration of this disparity. On the holiday of Purim Jews insist on telling the full sotry of peril and survival experienced thousands of years ago in Persia. Part of the ritualized story includes repeating Haman, the villain's name, frequently. Haman is supposed to be Amalek's descendant, from the tribe of those who are to be remembered and erased. However, he is not called the 'unnamed one.' His name is pronounced quite clearly and frequently. Jews name him and then make a great deal of noise to drown out the sound of his name. What a charade, what pretense, how effective! The ritual ensures that his name is repeated as it is concealed, hidden in the waves of sound. Is this not exactly how to remember and blot out?"
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