Purim (too many hamentashen)

While the rest of the world celebrates Easter, we Jews go about our ancient iconoclastic ways and celebrate (this year) Purim. Purim is the origin of all the carnivals celebrated in the Christian world, and like other Jewish holidays, it is about how the Jews survived yet another attempt to wipe them all out. I always wondered when I was growing up why everyone was always trying to kill us off. It explains why the doctrine of the "chosen people" grew up. I hate that idea, actually, and belong to a branch of Judaism where it is not accepted (Reconstructionism).
Anyhow, Purim is based on the story of Esther, set in ancient Persia, where that particular genocide attempt took place. The heroine, who foiled the attempt with her beauty, brains, and bravery, is Esther, who attracted the eye of the rather stupid king Ahasheurus, whose counselor, Hamen, gives hamentashen their name.
These are triangular butter cookies with a filling, usually about palm-sized. I tried taking a picture of the ones I made, which are filled with nutella--chocolate hazelnut spread. I made them that way because I can't eat chocolate, and I had eaten way too many of the ones I made with apricot previously. They didn't turn out well (they didn't remain triangular, and unfolded flat because I didn't leave the dough in the fridge long enough).
Purim services consist of a reading of the story of Esther, the Megillah. You've heard of the whole megillah? That's it. People dress in costumes, and in traditional Jewish communities, get fall-down drunk and tell raunchy jokes. In my community, it's a time for little kids to dress up like kings and queens and bad guys and parade around.
It's refreshing in such a traditionally sexist tradition to have a woman be the hero for a change, even if it's a beauty contest that gives her a chance to save the Jewish people. She is one of several prominent and not-so-prominent women in Jewish lore that are noteworthy. These include women like Pharoah's daughter, who plucked Moses and his basket out of the Nile, and Moses' sister Miriam, and the midwives who saved babies marked for slaughter in that same story. Supposedly, the flight from Egypt never actually occured because the Jews, it seems, were not captives in Egypt, in actuality, or at least there's no evidence that they were. Perhaps it was elsewhere in the region; some speculate it was Babylon. I'm not one of those people who goes looking for the literal ark, so it doesn't really matter to me. It's a good story anyhow, that resonates today.