פורים - come crank the gragger!

a purim, פורים, gragger, also called "ra'ashan", a noisemaker, is twirled, spun and cranked when the evil haman's name is mentioned during the reading of the megilla, as tradition dictates, 2 blot out the name of evil.

come crank up the noise at sacred chow's purim party, tuesday, march 10, 2009 , 14 adar, 5749. let's shout, laugh, hoot, holler, and shake the gragger 2 blot out evil 2gether.

the festival of purim celebrates the salvation of the jewish people in persia from evil haman's plot 2 destroy all of persia's jews in a single day.
the events of purim extended over a period of several years, culminating in the joyous victory celebrations of adar 14-15 of 356 b.c.e., now known as purim.

purim observances include:
a) reading of the megillah/book of esther. (esther was the great jewish queen, who despite the risk of certain death, convinced her king 2 save the persian jews from annihilation. the megillah recounts the story of this purim miracle).
b) giving 2 less fortunate folks. (gifts of money should be given 2 at least 2 people).
c) sending gifts of food to a friend. (at least two ready-to-eat foods to a minimum of one friend).
d) the purim feast @ sacred chow. (eat, drink, make music, elocute poetry and the story of esther).
e) reciting the al hanissim prayer, an invocation of miracles. a reverent petition of grace after meals on purim 2 thankfully and fortunately acknowledge the manifestation of divine intervention.

customs include dressing up in disguising costumes and eating traditional jewish-persian purim food. the well-known hamantashen, shaped like haman's hat, and mohntaschen, is always consumed, and the gragger is incessantly cranked at high speed. come crank the gragger!
the word tashen is derived from the german word taschen (pockets). mohntaschen is german for "poppy seed pockets" and was a popular jewish-german pastry. hamantaschen means "haman's pockets" and became a popular purim pastry. it was rumored that the evil haman's pockets were filled with bribe money. however, the most popular explantion of why jews eat this three cornered pastry on purim is that haman wore a three-cornered hat. eating an image of haman's hat is a delicious way to symbolically destroy his memory.

yum, yum, eat 'em up!