As I mentioned previously, tonight was Purim, the Jewish Festival of Lots. For a full description, Wikipedia, as usual, has a pretty good description: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim
There are quite a few traditions around the holiday. The main one’s important to me are:
- Eating Hamantaschen (three-cornered cookies with a fruit filling in the middle)
- Hearing the Megillah (Book of Esther) being read from start to finish
- Drinking! (You are supposed to drink enough to not be able to tell the difference between the good guy, Mordecai, and the bad guy, Haman)
- Dressing up (think of it as the Jewish Halloween; costumes abound!)
In honor of the holiday, our local group (Kavana) had a Purim event this evening, filled with all of the above, for kids and adults alike. We both participated in the reading of the Megillah, so it was an even greater honor.
Joelle and I took the opportunity to dress up, and went with costumes that we had found while we were in Israel shopping. We were walking down Ben Yehuda Street (the main shopping street in downtown Jerusalem) and came upon a costume shop. Joelle found a Shtreimel black hat, as often worn by Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, decorated with peyes (ritual very long sideburns/sidelocks - Orthodox men have them due to a prohibition against shaving). Taking a liking to this idea, Joelle decided to make a whole costume out of it, and correspondingly, I was forced into a women’s outfit (dressed as an Orthodox Jewish Grandmother - we found the wig at the same store, augmented by a Value Village run).
Even better, this fulfills a bet I made with a friend awhile ago; to dress in drag for a holiday (he meant Halloween, but close enough), as he tends to always do this in exchange for him shaving off his beard of many years. Can’t remember why I agreed to it; but it is now complete!
Pictures, of course - aren’t we sexy!
(Click on the pictures for the full versions)
Tags: drag, jewish, kavana, purim
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