Re: Purim-Las Fallas

[Lori Cahan-Simon <l_cahan...>]

I thought this might be of interest to some on our list.
Lorele

Rammsm (at) aol(dot)com wrote:

>  From: Marsha B. Cohen <mcohen02 (at) fiu(dot)edu>
> > Subject: Las Fallas-Purim Connection
> >
> > I was listening to the authors of a new book
> > entitled "100 Things to do
> > Before You Die" being interviewed on public radio
> > the other day.   Dave
> > Freeman and Neil Teplica  described an annual
> > festival held in
> > Valencia, Spain beginning on March 15.  The origins
> > of the festival are
> > described by the authors as "murky."  According to
> > the book, Las Fallas
> > may have begun as a feast day for St. Joseph, the
> > patron  saint of
> > carpenters, but has evolved into a five-day,
> > multifaceted celebration of
> > fire. The focus of the fiesta is the creation and
> > destruction of
> > "ninots"=97huge cardboard, wood, and plaster
> > statues that are placed
> > around the city on March 15. The ninots are
> > extremely realistic and
> > usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current
> > events , particularly
> > corrupt politicians.  The ninots remain in place
> > until the final evening
> > of the fiesta, when young  men with axes chop holes
> > in the statues and
> > stuff them with fireworks.   The crowds start to
> > chant, the streetlights
> > are turned off, and all of the  ninots are set on
> > fire at exactly the
> > stroke of midnight.
> > <http://whatsgoingon.com/100things/lasfallas/>
> >
> > In the course of some recent research I did on
> > al-Biruni (Chronology of
> > Ancient Nations, Persia, c. 1023) I came across a
> > passage which stated
> > that Purim could not fall on a Saturday because this
> > would prevent the
> > burning of Haman.  Exploring this curious
> > explanation, I found that the
> > Ge'onim describe a custom called  mashvarta dePuria
> > Young lads make an
> > effigy of Haman and hang it from the roofs for four
> > or  five days. Then,
> > on Purim, they make a bonfire and throw the effigy
> > into it, and they
> > dance around the fire and sing. They hang a ring
> > over the fire, and
> > they jump through the ring from one side of the fire
> > to the other.
> > ("Keitzad Hiku Et Haman biTefutzot Yisrael", Yalkut
> > Folkloristi lePurim,
> > by Yom Tov Levinsky.)  Other sources have confirmed
> > that Jewish boys in
> > Persia stuffed effigies of Haman with gunpowder and
> > set it alight.
> > Haman burning  was also a custom in Libya, Bukhara,
> > the Caucasus,
> > Tunisia, Yemen and southern India, sometimes
> > accompanied by crucifiction
> >
> >(see
> http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/festivls/purim/pugnen07.html
> >
> > Have any studies been done as to whether Las Fallas
> > may have originated
> > as a Purim festival, which either was preserved by
> > conversos after the
> > Expulsion, or, if it originated much earlier,  might
> > be linked to the
> > ban on the burning of Haman imposed on the Jews in
> > Christian Europe
> > because of accusations that the hanging, crucifying
> > and burning of Haman
> > was a symbolic crucifixion of Jesus?.   Both its
> > timing and its
> > tradition of burning and exploding effigies of
> > political figures bear
> > strong resemblance to the Purim customs of the Jews
> > of the Muslim
> > world.  Any further information would be greatly
> > appreciated.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Marsha
> >

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