“Happy Purim! ”
“Happy what?”
“Happy Purim! You know, when Queen Esther saved all the Jews from getting killed.”
Are you one of the people “in the know” about Purim, or is this a holiday you have never heard of?Chances are you remember something about the story of Queen Esther from the Old Testament. It is one of my favorites.
The Jewish holiday Purim begins at sundown on Saturday, March 19, 2011 and continues twenty-four hours until sundown on Monday, March 20. (Like Easter, Purim doesn’t always fall on the same dates each year on our calendar, but it does come out the same day on the Hebrew calendar.) Purim celebrates the life of Queen Esther whose courage saved the Jewish people who were living throughout the Persian Empire from being killed in one day. Here is an article about celebrating Purim found on a website called Hebrew for Christians. (Click on website name.)
The book of Esther in the Old Testament is 10 chapters long. The story moves at a rapid pace so that parents and older children might enjoy reading it together. It may help you to understand the story to know that King Ahasuerus and King Xerxes are the same person. Queen Esther also has another name Hadassah, though it is only mentioned a time or two.
I looked online for a re-telling of the story and was disappointed with several of them. Many took liberties in the re-telling that introduced material that was not Biblical, and one in particular threw in a lot of “information” that was totally wrong. Here is a web page with Bible stories you may want to share with your younger children: http://www.touchoffire.com/biblestorymain.htm You will have to select Queen Esther in the sidebar on the left. (I did not read all the stories so am unable to comment on the rest.)
If you read the story of Queen Esther from the Bible or from a good Bible story book, you may want to try this puzzle when you finish reading the story.
Queen Esther
Across
3. Haman was hung on the _______ he built for Mordecai.
5. A Jewish holiday celebrating the bravery of Queen Esther who saved the lives of the Jewish people in Persia
8. The king of Persia also known as King Ahasuerus,
9. Haman had to lead Mordecai riding on a horse the king had ridden and wearing a crown and ____ the king had worn.
10. A queen of Persia who lost her position as queen because she refused to come to the king’s banquet when he called her
Down
1. A wicked man who made up a plan for all the Jewish people in Persia to be killed in one day
2. A young orphan girl who became queen and bravely defended the Jewish people from being killed
4. Mordecai encouraged Queen Esther to risk her own ____ and go to the king. He said to Queen Ester “Who knows but for such a time as this you became Queen of Persia.”
6. A Jewish man who raised an orphan girl. He became the second most important person in the kingdom of Persia
7. All the beautiful young girls were brought to the palace and given beauty treatments for a whole ____ (how long?) before they would be presented to the king so he could select his new queen.
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