purim costume

Hi Adobe, here in Israel, kids (and some adults) are wearing all kinds of costumes, not only Purim-themed. Young kids often prefer to "be" a favorite cartoon character or a cute animal. I can see how a kid attracted to firetrucks would want to wear a firefighter costume.Purim is great fun for kids!

It probably depends on the school. In my community people wear all sorts of things (C and I are going to be a kangaroo if I can pull it off), but I know of some more traditional communities where purim-related costumes are encouraged/ expected. You may want to give your son's school a call and check on what the norm is so he doesn't feel out of place.

Ruth, you are correct, in some areas over here (Mea She'arim, Bnei Brak, etc), it is mainly Megillat Esther characters on the streets.What I described in my post is true for the majority, but not for everyone.

My daughter went to a Conservative Jewish day school for elementary school; all of the children were Jewish. The emphasis was placed on costumes related to Purim in some way. So there were a lot of Queen Esthers dressed in "storybook", not Biblical, queen attire. I'm sure that if your son just wanted a crown and a scepter and some sort of cape, he'd be a fine king. Send him with some cookies from a local Kosher bakery, so he can dole them out to his "subjects" and he'll be fine. (Make sure that the teacher checks out their Kashrut status.) On the other hand, a preschool with both non-Jewish and Jewish kids is likely to be more tolerant of costume styles. Even a lot of Reform synagogues do a lot of non-Biblical costumes at their Purim celebrations. At our Reform synagogue, one year, the rabbis appeared on the bimah in space suits, in a cloud of dry ice. And another year, a Klezmer band serenaded the female rabbi, a huge baseball fan, with a Purim story set to the tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame. If you are worried -- and I applaud you for trying to be sensitive to the religious issue -- by all means, call the school. Sharon