Beginning last night at sunset, and ending today at sunset,
Jews all around the world have been celebrating Purim. Purim has been celebrated
since the time of Esther, and is recorded in the book of Esther in the Bible.
"And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto
all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh
and far, to stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day
of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days
wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto
them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should
make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and
gifts to the poor.
“And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai
had written unto them; because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the
enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had
cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
“But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by
letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should
return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
“Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of
Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had
seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, the Jews ordained,
and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves
unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days
according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year; and
that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation,
every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim
should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their
seed.
“Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and
Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of
Purim. ...
“And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim;
and it was written in the book." - Esther 9:20-29, 32 KJV
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