The case for taking the festival of Purim beyond its origins and into the streets
[Jerusalem] – Some tourists think nothing of boarding a plane for Munich to take in the sights and tastes of Germany’s Oktoberfest. Others are happy to extend their visit to Brazil to include the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Israelis want to know why the festival of Purim and the city of Jerusalem could not team up to offer the same allure; where a religious observance morphs into a plain old good time, celebrating “until you don’t know” the difference between the holiday’s good guy and bad guy?
At the end of this week cities across Israel will celebrate the holiday of Purim – Lots – in commemoration of which adults and children alike adorn costumes and party in the streets. Add gift-giving and the eating of special delicacies – cookies called “Haman’s Ears,” named after the holiday plot’s villain – to the tradition to create the festival’s special character.
But it’s possibly the drinking and the costumes that make both secular Israelis and non-Jewish foreigners living in the country so enthusiastic about the event.
Photo: Robert Swift
“Purim is pretty unique in that it is a religious festival, so there’s the potential for a lot of ritual or going to the synagogue with the family, and then instead it’s replaced with people marching down the street in costumes and drinking alcohol all day for three days straight,” Luke Scully, an Australian national living in Israel, told The Media Line.
During Scully’s first visit to Israel he heard so much hype from locals about the approaching holiday that he extended his time in the country to see it. “And I wasn’t disappointed,” he laughed.
At the heart of the holiday’s origins is a celebration by Jewish people that they survived annihilation at the hands of an enemy. The story goes back to ancient Persia where Haman, the villain of the tale and the adviser to King Ahasuerus, decided to remove his political rival Mordechai, a Jewish man. Rather than simply having Mordechai ‘disappeared’, as would seem much more reasonable and logistically feasible, Haman decided to have all the Jews in the empire massacred.
This was a decision he later came to regret as Esther, the heroine of the story and Mordechai’s cousin, had recently married the King (best not to dwell on what happened to Vashti, his previous wife). From here, Haman’s evil scheme unraveled due to a combination of the heroes’ cunning, God’s assistance and, most importantly, liberal amounts of wine.
Having talked the king onto their side, the heroes turned the plot against their would-be murderers and Haman ended up swinging from the gallows he had erected for Mordechai.
It is for this reason that celebrants at Purim are instructed to, “Drink until you cannot tell the difference between cursed Haman and blessed Mordechai,” something that gives the feast a very different feel from the majority of Jewish holy days.
Photo: Robert Swift
“Purim is a Jewish holiday which has left the confinement of the house party or the synagogue and gone out into the street where people are dancing, drinking and dressed up,” Gabe Rozman, a student and a new immigrant to Israel, told The Media Line.
Following his service in the army, Rozman, like many young Israelis, travelled to South America. Since witnessing the carnivals in Bolivia and Peru, he’s started seeing their similarity to Jerusalem’s Purim celebrations, he said. So much so that he believes Jerusalem’s street parties will develop a reputation. “People love to travel to Brazil during Rio and to Bolivia during their festivals. I think Jerusalem will become one of those destinations,” Rozman explained.
Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that Purim is not yet on the scale of any international street parties of renown, dwarfed by Octoberfest which attracts as many as six million people each year and Rio’s Festival which sees two million people flood its streets every single day.
But it has the potential to expand in years to come, Rozman suggested, noting that Israel is still young: younger than many of the South American festivals, such as Rio’s which began in 1723.
Photo: Robert Swift
Costumes are a big deal during Purim. Unlike at American Halloween parties – to which Purim is often compared to but which has a very different atmosphere – there is no horror theme to the dressing up. People are as likely to dress up as Garth and Wayne, as Minions or as a police officer.
For years it was very popular for ultra-Orthodox people (who are often exempt from conscription) to dress up their children as Israeli soldiers – a jest made funnier by secular Israelis choosing to dress up as ultra-Orthodox people.
But for the time being, the holiday is not being marketed to tourists by either the Jerusalem Municipality or Israel’s Ministry of Tourism. This is partly due to the time of year the holiday is celebrated, outside of the main tourism season, Ilanit Melchior, director of tourism for the Jerusalem Development Authority, told The Media Line. Secondly, it is because the holiday is unlikely to appeal to non-Jews, she opined.
“It’s nice, but it’s an internal Jewish holiday. If you wanted to turn it into an international festival then you need to make sure that people who are coming from all around the world will feel part of it,” Melchior said.
For those already in the country then Purim will likely be fun but it is not an event on the scale of Venice’s Masked Carnival, Melchior said, asking, “Would someone fly all the way from Paris or Berlin to come be a part of it? No.”
Photo: Robert Swift
Luke Scully, who works in Israel’s tourism sector, disagreed with the idea that silly costumes and drinking alcohol would not appeal to young European tourists. “With budget flights available from virtually the whole continent, Europeans would easily be interested in a couple day’s itinerary to visit Israel.” Targeting such tourists could bring in much needed visitors and could improve the country’s image among Europeans, he argued.
To the most important question, Scully replied that, “At this year’s street party, I’m planning on being a Mexican Donald Trump. Why? Because dressing up at Purim allows you to laugh at even the things you would rather cry about.”