At school today there was a Purim celebration. The whole school and the teachers were dressed up. I was running a little late, but it didn't end up mattering because everyone was.
The first thing that happened was that we exchanged Mishloach Manot, which is a small bundle of fun stuff that you exchange on Purim. Generally the "fun stuff" is candy and Hamentaschen. I have the feeling I explained this before. Oh well.
So I received a considerably large package, after which everyone began pigging out on what they got. That lasted for maybe ten minutes. After that, everyone went to join the festivities.
The whole school had been decorated with colorful posters and fairly random decorations (there was some sort of curtain which was decorated with fake money...and a giant spider). The basketball court had been turned into a dancing space. There was a DJ and music blaring. Groups of students had set up little food stands - I saw smoothies, candy, and hot dogs. I found some of my friends from another class and we went around finding out what people had dressed up as. There were a lot of pirates, since all of the twelfth graders had dressed up as that, and a considerable amount of boys cross-dressing, but none vice versa. I actually went into the girls' bathroom at one point and this guy in a dress came in and started making poses in the mirror the way I guess boys think girls do. There were two girls dressed as light and dark, which really freaked me out because my friend and I did that this past Halloween, and tons of people as Stabilo brand highlighters (which here are called markers, just in an Israeli accent). I found vampires, James Bond, smurfs, people in togas (not sure if they were Greek or Roman), bees, angels, a hypnotist, ladybugs, a cat, and probably so many more.
Most of the day was a photo opportunity. I took pictures of and with my friends and after I was tired of that it was basically just waiting. We couldn't go home until the gates were opened, but there wasn't much to do after the first two hours. Someone brought some sort of popping firework-ish noisemakers, which they banged on with a cane from a costume. It was extremely loud and the whole area smelled like gunpowder after that.
The thing I love most about Purim is its randomness. Purim isn't anything, not scary like Halloween or Christmas-y like Christmas. Purim is, well, Purim. (I mean, where else do you find a curtain with fake money and a giant spider?) You can dress up as anything, it doesn't have to be scary or any specific kind. You get candy, you dress up, you party. What more could you ask for?
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