My Purim Extravaganza

My cousin commented to me the other day that most cultures have a holiday/celebration in which people dress in costume; the American’s have Halloween and Mardi Gras, the Mexican’s have Day of the Dead, Brazilians have Carnival – the list goes on - and Israelis have Purim. For those who are unaware of the background of Purim, it is a post biblical holiday that celebrates the survival of the Jewish people by the hands of Mordichai and Ester, both heroes, and Haman the evil villain. Some of the traditional ways to celebrate the holiday are to read/hear the Megila of Ester, dress in disguise (from Haman), eat Hamantashin and drink heavily in order not to tell the difference between Mordichai and Haman, a tenet of the faith that in my mind is followed closely by all young adults and most Israelis.
So if part of the study abroad experience is to immerse oneself in the culture of the host country, I did this by celebrating the festivities of Purim. Purim did not start until Thursday night this year, however, the fine upper level learning institution that is Tel Aviv University decided to start two nights earlier by hosting a party for its students in the dorms. The university brought in a DJ, set up a bar and some free food (along with face painting, weird if you ask me why college students want their face painted) one the first floor of my dorm. Now coming from a culture where our universities look down on excessive drinking and ban the sell of beer and alcohol at college football and basketball games, it was interesting to see the university promote drinking to its students. Back to the topic on hand, most of the students come dressed up in Halloween type costumes, I dressed up this night as a prepfratstar sporting the double popped collar plaid shorts and boating shoes. The party started around 9 and lasted until about 1, the DJ played the usual club techno songs intertwined with some Hebrew hits and the Akon and T-pain songs that have been played out in the states for sometime now. One interesting thing to note, the winners of the costume contest, two students one dressed as an old person and the other as his Pilipino caretaker, won roundtrip tickets to Amsterdam (more the university trying to push promiscuous sex with hookers and smoking weed). This precursor to Purim only gave us a taste of the true holiday spirit.
The real celebration was Thursday night in a shady south Tel Aviv neighborhood, Flourintine, at a street party sharing the same name. In Michigan we have block parties, but this was of another breed, to say that this party was a street party is to say that Achilles was just a warrior. The street was closed off for as far as the eye can see with thousands of people probably all of who are between the ages of 18 and 30 dressed up in costumes and wigs. My costume this night was a multifaceted, the first layer was a suit t-shirt that has become my ‘golden boy’ shirt and the second was a swimmer, hence the pictures of my taking clothes off in the middle of the street. Though most overseas students are not religious we fully partook (and some) in the mitzvah of drinking until we cannot recognize. This combination of factors along with the feeling that anything goes (lax police presence) added up to a night of fun unparallel and unlike to any American ‘party’ I have been to.