MODERN DAY ‘HAMANS’
Esther 9:20-22: “And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor.”
The most joyous of all the Jewish holidays is ‘Purim’ - the Feast of Esther. This year, ‘Purim’ begins on the evening of the 23rd March.
‘Purim’ commemorates the events found in the Book of Esther. These events took place around the 4th century B.C.E. in which a man by the name of Haman, who hated the Jewish people of the day, devised a plan to destroy the Jews.
By casting ‘pur’ (lots), he decided on a day to destroy the Jews, the date being the 14th day of the Hebrew month of ‘Adar’, which is the date ‘Purim’ is always celebrated.
The word ‘Purim’ comes from the Hebrew word for ‘lots’, ‘pur’.