Shymkent Community celebrated the most joyful holiday - Purim. This holiday resembles carnival because it is so bright, multi-colored and full of fun. The holiday commemorates how Persian Jews got rid of the hateful Haman. Purim is the only day of the year when Jews are not only allowed to drink alcohol, but even supposed to get really drunk to the point to lose the ability to "distinguish between evil Haman and holy man Mordechai". It is a tradition to have fun, joke and laugh a lot on this day.

On February 28 we celebrated Purim in the Shymkent Community. The audience listened to poetic Purimshpil - a mockery of the famous Purim story that happened during Akhashverosh times, and the story of how the lot - pur and Mordechai’s shrewdness helped the Jewish people overcome the hateful enemy. Purimpshil is great to perform on stage as it is a beautiful bright performance which is always well-remembered by the audience.

Many artists were invited at our feast. Irina Drobot sang Purim songs; Alexander Korotkov inspired us by professionally playing the accordion. He also conducted a musical quiz to check the audience’s knowledge of Jewish melodies.

There were many jokes and songs performed by children from the Sunday Jewish school. Boris Shamuelov told us about the history and traditions of this holiday. There was a quiz, everybody answered questions and earned many presents. According to the festival tradition, many guests including adults and children were dressed in costumes.

At the end of the festival the guests were treated with a festive meal and tasted ears of Haman "gometashes".

Bella Atran