Be Happy! It's ADAR!

That would be a pretty obscure title for most people, but if you're Jewish, you know that the Hebrew month of Adar means that Purim is coming! Purim is the holiday where Jews all over the world turn totally silly for a day. It's like a combination of Halloween and Christmas, for there are costumes and hijinks galore, and also presents, treats, and skits. Who would possibly hate Purim?

Purim, an early spring festival is celebrated with great rejoicing and merrymaking, both in the synagogue and at home. In the synagogue, the Megillah (The Book of Esther) is read, recounting how beautiful Queen Esther and her wise Uncle, Mordecai, saved the Jewish people from destruction by the wicked Haman (BOOO!). He was defeated and destroyed and good prevailed over evil.

It has become customary to celebrate Purim with parties for children and grownups, costumes, masquerades, feasting, and drinking. Plenty of drinking! Singing, dancing, and Purim shpiels (skits), as well as Purim carnivals are all commonplace. All kinds of patries are prepared and consumed, which helps use up all the flour in the house before the onset of Passover a few weeks later. Honey cakes, strudels, cookies and especially hamentaschen, the three cornered, filled cookies supposed to represent Haman's hat, are traditional for Ashkenazi Jews, while Sephardic Jews serve foulares, hard cooked eggs in pastry, said to represent Haman in jail or on the gallows.

On Purim, gifts of food (cookies, folares, dried fruits, nuts, bottles of wine, candy, etc.) called Shalach Manor or Mishloah Manot, are exchanged amongst friends, neighbors, and relatives, Sweets and money are distributed to the poor.

A Suggested Menu for Mishloach Manot would include a combination hamentaschen, strudels, rugelach, cookies, zucchini bread, date and nut bread, and apple honey cake. I'll be posting recipes for all of these treats over the next few days at Forks.ca. Don't miss them!

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Be Happy! It's ADAR!

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