Purim Party

The Purim Story

I am dressed up as Queen Esther!

Purim is a celebration of the Jewish people's salvation against threat of annihilation. In 4th century BCE, King Ahasuerus of Persia had a pageant to find a new wife after becoming angry with his current wife, Queen Vashti. He chose a Jewish girl named Esther, who had a cousin named Mordecai. Haman, the King's advisor, became angry with Mordecai when he refused to bow to him. Because of this, Haman resolved to have all the Jews in Persia killed. Queen Esther, who had not yet told the King that she was Jewish, told the King that if he let Haman kill all the Jews, he would have to kill her too. The King protected his wife and her people, and instead had evil Haman punished.  

Purim Traditions

Purim, therefore, is a celebration of life, and is a time for feasts and happiness. Hamantaschen, or "Haman's pockets" are pastries traditionally served during Purim. It is also customary to give to the poor during Purim, as well as dress in costume. This is partially because "Esther" means "hidden," and because she hid her Jewish origin from the King in the beginning. Another reason for wearing costumes during the holiday is that Purim is called a miracle "disguised in natural events," in comparison to overt miracles seen in other Jewish holidays. One fun thing for children to do during Purim is make groggers, or noisemakers. These noisemakers are to be used whenever the name "Haman" is spoken, so as to drown out the evil name.

At our library Purim Party, I told the story of Purim according to the book It Happened in Shushan: A Purim Story by Harriet K. Feder. The book doesn't have traditional illustrations, it rather intersperses pictures or symbols into the text to tell the story. To make the story interactive for the children, I made little flags for each character in the story: King Ahasuerus, Queen Vashti, Queen Esther, Cousin Mordecai, and Evil Haman. I made each character flag a particular color so that when each character was mentioned, I could announce, "Queen Esther! Hold up your purple flags!", for example. The children loved being involved and with the exception of no one wanting to be Haman (and why would they?), I think the interactive storytelling went well.

We also read Sammy Spider's First Purim by Sylvia A Rouss, which is an excellent book for showing little ones what the traditions of Purim are. We learned about going to the Synagogue, wearing costumes, making Hamantaschen ("Haman's Pockets"), and groggers. Groggers are noisemakers that children use whenever you hear Hama's name on Purim, so as to drown out the sound of the evil man's name.

This book was a great transition into our crafting for the party because we got to make groggers just like the one in the book. I premade the groggers by folding a paper plate in half, filled with a handful of dried pinto beans, and stapled along the edges. The children decorated their groggers with feathers, buttons, markers, and glitter glue. They also decorated masquerade masks which we wore as we paraded through the library, noisily shaking our groggers and shouting, "Happy Purim!" (The kids love being told to be noisy in the library!) My lovely coworker who assisted me with the program bought handmade hamantaschen from a local Jewish bakery and eating the delicious treats was a lovely ending to a lovely program. I don't think we had many children come to the library specifically for the program, but it was a busy enough Sunday where I was able to pull a bunch of kids away from the computers (yay!) and I had many children and parents thank me afterwards and tell me how much fun they had. They really enjoyed learning about and celebrating Purim!