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Oh, where to start… Okay, so Purim begins at sunset tonight and as it is a Jewish holiday where dressing up is a tradition, I’m sort of embarrassed I haven’t done a Purim paper doll since this one way back in 2011. So, here we are to rectify that situation. To be honest, I tend to forget about Purim until after the fact which is not really fair to what is technically one of my favorite Jewish holidays (which I am like 80% into because of the amazing cookies involved.)
So, what is Purim? Well, Purim is a holiday that usually falls in March or April and commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to have all of Persia’s Jewish subjects killed, by Esther and Mordecai as recounted in the Book of Esther. There’s more to the story of course (some of it involving a lot of drinking and nudity, oh my!), but to make a long story short, the day that the Jews weren’t killed is now remembered as Purim. If any of this did actually happen (a subject of some debate) it would have been around 400-500 BCE in the Persian empire of the time. By the way, this is the cutest 4 minute video of this story ever, if you want a kid-friendly primer.
Reading the Book of Esther from the Esther Scroll (the Book of Esther doesn’t appear in the Torah) is a religious requirement of Purim, as is giving to the poor, exchanging food with friends, and eating a celebratory meal. Non-religious traditions of the holiday include making noise (using a noise maker or just booing loudly) when the name Hamen heard during the reading of the Book of Esther, dressing up in costume as characters in the story (or just costume in general), and making hamentashen. Hamentashen are a traditional cookie shaped like a triangle and filled with poppy seed, prune, or apricot filling (or, if you’re me, raspberry). It is said they looked like Hamen’s hat, but I think there’s no historical backing for that one.
I like this hamentashen recipe, though I sub out the brandy usually with orange juice, and I think it is better than my Grandma’s recipe. (Don’t tell!) I usually buy my poppy seed filling, because I’m a little lazy about it. However, you can make your own poppy seed filling which I might have to do, because poppy seed filling is super hard to find in the grocery stores around here. I would add that if you’re used to making cookies with butter, than traditional hamentashen will taste odd perhaps, because they’re usually made without dairy for kosher cooking reasons. I’ve been known to make hamantashen outside of Purim as a non-dairy cookie for friends who don’t eat dairy.
Anyway, as a kid, I loved Purim. I love getting to dress up as Esther, or one memorable year, as a hamantashen. I loved getting to use a noise maker, hearing the story of Esther, and the general feeling of celebration the holiday creates. There’s also something about the slow slog towards spring when everything still is frozen up here in Alaska which makes baking some cookies and having a party seem like a really good thing to be doing.
I didn’t want to make a paper doll of Esther, because honestly, that was way more research than I was about to undertake. What did Jewish people wear in Persia in 400BCE? No idea!
Instead, I decided to draw someone celebrating Purim with a hamantashen t-shirt (because that’s fun) and some Esther costumes. For some reason I had it in my head that this whole thing took place in 1400 BCE, not 400 BCE, while I was sketching, so these outfits are way too early for the actual period, but I’m not sweating it. The trim on the second costume is supposed to look a little like hamentashen. I also included a traditional noise maker called a gragger (or grogger, or grager, or… there’s like a million ways to transliterate Yiddish, I swear) and plate of hamantashen. (Note: Drawing a plate of cookies is hard!)
For anyone else celebrating, have a happy Purim! For everyone not celebrating, have an amazing Wednesday evening and Thursday! I’m spending mine baking.