Purim, Puppets, and Vegan Hamantaschen

I celebrated my first Purim at a good friend's house today and had an amazing time. Since I didn't grow up in a community where I had the opportunity to make many Jewish friends, I didn't know much about the holiday before the party.

In the Hebrew book of Esther, an evil king Haman had planned to kill the Jews in his kingdom but his plan was stopped by Mordecai and his adopted daughter Queen Esther. Purim today is basically a celebratory holiday where there is a lot of good food, drinks, and fun, including costumes! My kind of holiday.

Here's the huge spread of amazing vegan food... my friend is an incredible cook:

I had my first Hamantaschen, a triangular pastry filled with a sweet fruit paste. It was delicious and especially exciting for me since they were all made vegan.

I may have eaten one too many of these...

I threw my costume together very last minute. I was the genie from the '60s show, I Dream of Jeannie. Thankfully I had the pink genie suit from thrifting years ago. I added a scarf around my pony tail, some gold colored jewelry, a vintage snake belt, and gold pointy shoes I bought for $5 in a Turkish market. Voilà, a Purim costume (sorry for the glare):

One note I learned from wearing this costume: do not wear a pink genie jumpsuit under a winter coat in February on the New York subway unless you want EVERYONE to stare at you. Yikes.

The best part of the celebration was the amazing Purim puppet show my friends put together. The hostess made the stage, set, and puppets all by hand. I was so impressed with her craftiness.

Here's a scene from the show:

And here's the cast at the end. So cute!

Check out this close up shot I took of the guard puppet. These guys must have taken quite a while to make.

Happy Purim to all!