Crowds celebrate Purim on streets of Jerusalem

Crowds gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Purim on Wednesday, 8 March.

The holiday is marked with costume parties and parades to commemorate the deliverance of Jewish people from a plot to exterminate them in the ancient Persian empire 2,500 years ago, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther.

Celebrations include giving gifts of food or drink, making charitable donations, and publicly recitating the Scroll of Esther or "reading of the Megillah".

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