street scene

Purim is the holiday that celebrates the story told in the book of Esther. We celebrate surviving an attempted annihilation of the entire Jewish people in one swipe, back in the days of king Ashuerus (aka Ahashverosh). Religious people go to the synagogue or to parties to hear the book of Esther chanted, and then everyone gets rip-roaringly drunk and has a marvelous time.

Yes, I said everyone gets drunk. This is a festival of drunken revelry and silliness. It's part Halloween (costumes), part April Fools (fake, silly news in the newspapers), and part Bacchanalia (that would be the drunken revelry). About 2000 years ago, when they were writing down the Talmud, the rabbis said that you should get so drunk on Purim that you don't know the difference between Haman (the bad guy) and Mordechai (the good guy).

For non-religious people, the holiday is pretty much the same, except without the reading the book part. Replace chanting with loud music at a Tel Avivi night club and stir.

This video was taken last Friday, a few days before Purim, but you can see toward the end of the video that someone was already wearing their devil horns.

This video was taken on Monday, Purim night, in a neighborhood in Tel Aviv where there are a lot of bars and dance clubs.