Matthew goes to a local private Jewish Academy for preschool. If you’re not familiar with Purim, it’s a holiday that celebrates how the Jews avoided annihilation by the Persians through the actions of Mordecai and Esther, as told in the Book of Esther. It is a particularly joyous holiday and you can’t help but be warmed by the depth of fun and wonder exhibited by those who celebrate.
For preschoolers like Matthew, it’s a holiday of costumes sort of like Halloween, but without the scariness. I, of course, had no idea about any of this until one of the moms in our class told me that her daughter, another little girl, and Matthew had all decided they were going to be dinosaurs. “That’s nice. I was thinking lawyer or investment banker.” She explained about the costumes.
I had certainly been telling Matthew that we were going to wear a costume on Friday, but it’s a nebulous idea anyway since has no idea what Friday is. And anyway, if you show him the costume then he’ll want to wear it—possibly for several days. So I told him about it on Thursday night and then on Friday morning, I mentioned it again as we brushed our teeth and got dressed. He was not very interested.
As he walked past the passage to the garage, he glanced over and saw the costume on a hanger. “What that?!” I explained it was his costume. He had to put it on right away
He demanded to leave immediately for school, but we held off until an appropriate time. He was ecstatic to see all the kids and all the teachers were dressed up.
Here is the class photo, with Ms. Alina and Ms. Shianne:
When I left him in the classroom, I happened to see students from the elementary grades pouring from their classroom doors on their way to a show at the amphitheater. It was a joyous procession of noisy kids; about twenty percent were in Harry Potter costumes of some kind. It was hilarious and loud and fun.
Matthew kept his costume on all day.
They spent a lot of time at the jumpy houses and with the Bubble Man. Matthew adores bubbles.
He was a tired little boy when we got home. He’s still asking to put on his dinosaur costume again.
How adorable!😍
Just adorable.