Looking at this month’s calendar I noticed St. Patrick’s Day and Purim both fall in March this year. It brought up two questions:
St. Patrick’s Day is a very popular holiday in the US, even if you’re not Irish or in an Irish heavy area. It’s probably the most popular bar and partying day besides New Year’s Eve, and most people probably dress up in green. There’s also quite a bit of decorating for the holiday. How popular is this day internationally? Especially in Britain, with its contentious history with Ireland?
How many Jews actually celebrate Purim relative to other religious holidays? And how do they celebrate the holiday?
Purim is a great kids holiday, but also has parts geared towards adults. Traditionally, Synagogues have carnivals and the kids dress up and play games and win prizes. There are traditional cookies, too! At Synagogue the Scroll of Esther is read (in hebrew) often in silly ways- our Rabbi would read portions in a falsetto, or read every other word etc. For the adults, the tradition is to get so drunk you can’t tell the difference between the hero’s name and the villain’s. Also, you are supposed to boo and hiss and drown out the villain’s name when it is read. Often farcical plays and skits are performed. Finally, a tradition of putting together baskets of food for friends and especially the poor, ill or shut-ins is encouraged. (I’m in the US, BTW).
Well, as one data point,it’s popular enough in Britain that the Mayor of London’s web site has a section about the London Paddy Day celebrations. http://www.london.gov.uk/stpatricksday/index.jsp
They say Purim is a great kid’s holiday, but none of the kids I knew growing up thought so. Making noise to drown out Hamin’s name was fun for about five minutes if you were five, but the waiting for someone to mention him was boring. And no one cared for Hamintoshchen.
That’s too bad you had that experience! As a kid, we always had a blast and my kids do too. For us it is more about the carnival than the services, that’s true.
Agreed. The synagogue had a “Purim carnival” which IIRC was some music, maybe a face-painter, and a bunch of tables set up in the social hall where the youth groups/Sisterhood/etc sold arts and crafts.
They’d have a kid’s service during the regular one, and at some point I seem to recall all the kids in costume being paraded into the synagogue proper so the parents could ooh and aaah at their little preciouses. This was at a reform congregation, so I don’t know if they’d do something similar at an orthodox or conservative temple.
My mom does make some pretty awesome chocolate hamintoshchen with cherry filling, but most often, they’re dry and bland. Purim is…soonish, right? Maybe I’ll be able to talk her into baking some when I’m home for break.
It’s big, mainly thanks to the Guinness marketing department, but nothing on the scale of the American parades. The ‘contentious history’ is far more complicated than you may assume, don’t forget that there’s literally millions of Irish people in Britain (and that’s not the Irish of the ‘my great-grandfather came through Ellis Island’ kind).
It was always great spending the day delivering and receiving Mishloach Manos (gifts of food), and generally, people would tip the kids who delivered it. When I was young, Purim meant a nice chunk of change for me. And everyone walked around in costume, and the candy lasted a week…and the festive family meal was always delicious…that part I still enjoy as an adult.
It is true, though, that it gets boring waiting through the first two chapters of Esther before you’re allowed to make any of the noise.
Even when the I.R.A. murdered a lot of innocent pub goers in the Birmingham pub bombings your average Brit didn’t didn’t blame the Irish only the IRA,thats never been a problem over here.
Theres an old joke…On what national Saints day do millions of English people go out and drink like theres no tomorrow?
Of course saying English people you’re expected to say St Georges day.
The answer is as you’ve guessed Paddys Day(St Patricks)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick’s_Day
has descriptions of St. Patrick’s Day parades worldwide. The one in Birmingham, UK is described as the third biggest parade after NY and Dublin.
Here in Israel Purim is the big costume holiday - Halloween, without the Grand Guignol, ghouls n’ goblins element. It’s big if you’re a kid, or if you have kids; adults also dress up, but in their case it’s mainly stuff like storeclerks in bunny ears (like my wife is going to force her employees to do), or girls in more-revealing-than-usual outfits.
Oh, an religious Jews go a bit overboard with the merymaking thing - but they aren’t used to having fun, so they tend to go a bit overboard.
Plus, humehtaschen! Bakeries here have really been going overboard in recent years with creative fillings (passion fruit, anyone?). One thing I like about this country is that they only sell holiday foods during holiday seasons. You won’t find jelly donuts in May, and you won’t find humentaschen in September. It makes every season unique.
