Singaporean mom living in Israel: Adloyada Holon Purim Parades 2016

A few days ago, Twentysixoctober went to one of the biggest Purim celebrations in Israel at the south of Tel Aviv, in Holon city!

I believe many people from Singapore have not heard about Purim as there are not many Jews in Singapore.

Purim is a special day celebrated yearly on the 14th on the Hebrew month of Adar by Jewish. It is to commemorate the saving of the Jewish population from the Haman's evil plot to annihilate all Jews during Ancient Persia. 

In Israel, Purim is a public holiday and so we decided to take a 2 hrs drive from Haifa to Tel Aviv to soak ourselves in this joyous occasion at one of the biggest parades in Israel, Adloyada.

We were lucky that it was a sunny day and the weather was awesome. While driving there, we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

On this jolly holiday, children are dressed up in costumes to celebrate (there were also many adults who dressed up too).

We had dressed Aedan as Mike from Monsters Inc.!

In the parades, there were many huge cartoon characters such as Smurf and Elmo which were manually controlled by people moving on the street.

There were many children who participated by dancing, playing instruments & singing in the parades too.

There was also Chinese dragon dance!

This parade is somewhat similar to Singapore's Chingay parades except that the event happened in the day and there were no seating & entrance fees.

This parade is absolutely free of charge and there are also people giving out free sweets! However, the down side is that it's really crowded & you need to squeeze your way through to find a good viewing spot.

Purim is a celebratory day and there are many customs on this day which include reading the book of Esther, doing charity to help the poor, giving foods & drinks hampers known as Mishloach manot and having family feasts.

They also made traditional triangular pastries known Hamantaschen.

If you are interested to visit Israel during this festive season, next year, Purim will start on the evening of 11 March 17, Saturday, and ends on the evening of 12 March 17, Sunday.
Shops and malls remain open during this festival and please do not be shock to see their waiters/waitresses dress in costumes. However, do note that next year Purim falls on a Saturday which is their weekend (in Israel, weekend falls on Friday & Saturday as Jewish Shabbat lasts from sunset on Friday to the fall of full darkness on Saturday) during which shops will be closed.


Happy reading!
Twentysixoctober

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