Purim- the Jewish festival of the fancy dress season.

Purim- the Jewish festival of the fancy dress season.

Admit it. Your kids have been looking forward to this day for ages- or since the last major Jewish festival. They've been nagging you crazy to get the latest Batman or Superman costume since the beginning of the year and they won't leave you alone for a minute. This is a Jewish festival rich in symbolic promise, a festival laced decoratively in the tradition and history of Judaism. It is a festival that oozes joy, happiness, optimism and, essentially, fun.

Purim is that festival in question. On Tuesday the global multitudes who make up the worldwide Jewish population will dig out their fancy dress costumes, dancing, singing and smiling the day away without a care in that world. It is a day devoted to parody, masquerade, face pulling, childish exuberance and mildly effective alcohol because the whole idea of the exercise is to drink with moderately amusing quantities of alcohol. Or maybe that's only part of the experience.

For as long as any of us can remember Purim was always the festival where the kids threw off their inhibitions, hid the homework in the cupboard so that mum and dad could never find it then running up and down the streets and roads with that careless indifference to all the more critically important issues around their world. The masks will be revealed in all their gaudy ghastliness and for hours before the big day, parents will have their work cut out painting, sticking and sewing all kinds of paraphernalia onto their beloved offspring.

And then in the evening the Purim service will be concluded by a hearty expression of hatred, disapproval and opprobrium at one evil figure. The kids will all get together and launch into a noisy tirade of booing and hissing at Haman, that bloke who carried out all of those dastardly deeds during Biblical times. They'll be stamping and stomping their feet in a ritualistic display of their contempt of Haman, their unashamed distaste and dislike of everything that Haman stands for. Haman is really the nastiest piece of work, a detestable and execrable figure who did nothing but upset and antagonise the Jewish people.

It's time to shoot down Haman in flames, cut him down to size and make his life a complete misery because he's had ideas way above his station and has to be dealt with. So while the children and their parents bite into that first wonderful mouthful of sweet Hamantaschen the rest of us will pay homage to another of those Jewish festivals where all that matters is having a great time and revelling in celebration.

Last Purim our synagogue(shul) gave some of us our first tantalising glimpse of Extinction Rebellion which at the time left us in a state of complete puzzlement. A gentleman, wearing a sandwich man board with the said slogan, proudly displayed his message to all and sundry. It was only later on in the month that we finally discovered what on earth he was wearing. Our friend was a fervent advocate of the environment, a man committed to a cleaner world, an eco warrior simply spreading the word about the purity of the fresh air that we breathe and no more poisonous gases and chemicals.

And so it is that the huge Jewish communities of Stamford Hill, Golders Green, Edgware and Hendon in the London conurbations will join together with their like minded families and friends in the rest of the country. Come the evening they'll be gathering in their hundreds of thousands and millions to read the Megillah, that very thought provoking and frequently hilarious book of commentaries on the dreaded Haman.

Even now though thoughts will be turning to the next Jewish festival. We are now on the cusp of spring and for those who simply can't wait to munch into their first matzo, Pesach will be skipping and gambolling into our consciousness like the greenest field of lambs. For the time being we await Tuesday morning because we feel sure that here in Manor House it'll be time to make way for the fancy dress mardi gras, children pretending to be the very cartoon figures that have always been an integral part of their lives for quite some time. Purim has a considerable amount to commend it, a time of raucous revelry and, above all, a day for the families of the world to unite as they've always done. Happy Purim everybody.