David called me up this morning wanting to know about the Ides of March. Most of us know it best from reading Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in high school… “Beware the Ides of March!” And for those of you who took Advanced Calculus instead and have no clue what I’m talking about, on this date in 44 BCE, dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by enemies in the Roman Senate, an event later immortalized in Shakespeare’s play.

I kind of have a penchant for Shakespearian death scenes… in high school, I got to croak out in a Marlon Brando Godfather voice, “Et tu, Brute?” as a stabbed Caesar. But my best performance was in college when I played a poisoned Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. My prof said he’d never seen anyone launch herself sideways off that chair and smack the floor with that much vigor.

In other news, David also wanted to know more about Purim, which our Jewish friends celebrated yesterday. So I’ll do my best to cover both topics without launching into a soliloquy of my own on the sins of ancient and modern empires.

Now, if you’re like me, you want to know what the heck the Ides of March are. Well apparently, there is nothing at all dark about the Ides of March—it is simply the Roman way of saying March 15. Any of you who know Roman numerals know how confusing they can be, and the actual day counting functions on the same premise. The only days named in the Roman calendar are Kalends, the first day of the month; Nones, either the 5th or 7th day, depending on the month; and Ides, the 13th or 15th day. All the other days are referenced to those using a numeral in front of them. So Romans would talk about March 3 as V Nones, or yesterday as I Ides. Thank goodness we switched to the Arabic system.

But I guess it doesn’t sound nearly as spooky for the soothsayer to say to Caesar, “Beware March 15.”

As for Purim, celebrated yesterday, the feast commemorates an event you should actually be quite familiar with—the festival celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the Book of Esther. The name comes from the Hebrew “pur,” or “lots,” referring to the lots that Haman cast to determine the day in which Jews in the Persian Empire would be executed. I will avoid recapping the story (you can look it up), except to say that it features a courageous heroine who risked her own life to follow God’s call and save her people from destruction.

Purim is sometimes called the Jewish Mardi Gras. The Book of Esther is read in synagogue, accompanied by boos and hisses whenever Haman’s name is mentioned. Communities hold carnivals and parades featuring people dressed as Esther and other protagonists in the story. The Talmud even directs people to drink so much that they can’t tell the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai!” But Jews also commemorate the day with gifts of food and drink to neighbors, and charitable contributions.

The holiday is marked with great joy and celebration because it represents the Jewish community’s ability to survive persecution and persevere in exile through the centuries. From a feminist perspective, it is also one of the few important religious holidays that commemorates a woman as a key protagonist in the life of the faith. And since we Christians share a bit of that heritage, it is a time for us to rejoice in God’s abundant goodness as well.

So celebrate your Ides of March with a little belated Purim merriment! And mark your calendars for IV Nones to hit Purim next year!!

“Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, a holiday on which they send gifts of food to one another.” --Esther 9:19

Kelsey