Purim

Purim, a Jewish secular rather than religious feast, in honour of the deliverance of the nation, recorded in the Book of Esther, held on 14th to 15th Adar. Apparently it spread but slowly; still Josephus tells us that by his time it was observed over all the Jewish world. Most modern scholars consider it an adaptation of a similar Persian feast, Furdiġan ('Pōrdiyān'), and Lagarde has shown that the two names are identical. See ESTHER.