PURIM!
Be Happy! It’s Adar!
There are so many fun things to do for Purim – make costumes, bake cookies - and other foods, give food gifts to friends, wear crowns and masks. Lots of playing opportunities for kids and adults. The drinking and carousing should be for the grown-ups, and kept within reason.
Here is a great local site for holiday information. Go here and click on “Purim”
http://www.sfjcf.org/resources/jholidays/
Giving gifts of food for Purim
It is traditional for Purim to give gifts of food to friends and neighbors. I found the funniest site that had some wonderful ideas for non-traditional food gifts! Things you’re have fun making, giving, and receiving. Perfect for the west! Take a look:
http://www.aish.com/family/cooking/Purim_Mishloach_Manot_Ideas.asp
The Silicon Valley Federation has a newsletter with a column, Ask the Rabbi, which has a nice description of the traditional elements of observing Purim. Look online:
http://www.jvalley.org/jcn/2_2008/askrabbi.html
Here’s rather cartoony looking site with a wide range of information:
http://www.aish.com/holidays/purim/
Project Welcome has a nice brochure you can download that gives you all the basics:
http://urj.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=12752&destination=ShowItem
Making cookies – hamentashen – for the holiday.
A hamentashen recipe with several fillings
http://jewishappleseed.org/apple/hamnrecp.htm
A hamentashen recipe by Joan Nathan, one of my favorite cookbook authors:
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Purim/TO_Purim_Home/Foods/hamantashen.htm
Go to wwwmyjewishlearning.com and search for Purim, you’ll get a variety of articles on customs, rituals, the story, food, etc.
Telling the story of Queen Esther to your kids
Go to a local Jewish book and gift store and get some books for your kids.
There is a sweet picture book on the Purim story by Tomie DePaola titled Queen Esther. I was walking through the gift shop at B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek last week and saw a number of children’s books on Purim. If you’re in the East Bay check out Afikomen on Claremont Avenue in Berkeley. If you’re on the peninsula, try bob and bob’s in Los Altos on El Camino Real. In San Francisco go to Dayenu at the SF JCC on California. Many of the synagogues will have gift shops with books also.
