by (Parody News Service*) President Barack Obama has tonight for the first time hosted a Purim celebration at the White House.
Purim celebrates the successful efforts of Queen Esther and her Uncle Mordecai to save the Jews of the Persian Empire from “Haman’s plot to annihilate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim . The traditional celebration includes dressing in costumes and drinking to the point where you cannot distinguish between the hero Mordecai and the villain Haman.
While the White House celebration did not include the religious ceremony of the reading from the Book of Esther, it did feature children and adults dressed in costumes, as well as drunken adults who honored the injunction to imbibe. The White House also requested that all who attended the Purim celebration honor the holiday tradition of giving gifts to charity.
Outside the White House, clashing demonstrators protested the event. “Whatever happened to the separation between Church and State?” asked the spokesperson for the civil libertarian demonstration. “We don’t make a big deal about Christmas, Easter, Hanukah, and Ramadan, but Purim? What’s next? Will the White House become like parking in New York City – every other day is a religious observance? Where will this administration stop in its effort to bring religion into government?”
The Coalition for Religious Decorum had a totally different complaint. “Religion in the White House is good but drinking to excess is not,”” explained its spokesperson. “This is just one more example of this administration treating religion with disrespect.”
*If the Parody News Service byline did not tip you off, this blog post is not true (at least to the knowledge of its author). The blog post honors the Purim tradition of parody. See, for example, http://forward.com/backward-purim/.
What fun!