There’s nothing like letting your hair down from time to time, releasing some pent-up tension in a fun, healthy and socially friendly way. Purim has been a suitable juncture in the Jewish calendar across the ages as kids, and some adults, get into all kinds of eye-catching and, often, blatantly ridiculous costumes and spread some joie de vivre.

Purim events in Holon

It is also carnival time, as cities around the country hold Adloyada parades down their high streets. The tradition began in pre-state Tel Aviv, in 1912, and has since migrated elsewhere. Today the biggest Adloyada event, complete with gigantic floats, dancing troupes and live bands, is held in Holon, with this year’s carnival set to kick off at noon on March 7.

Locals and visitors will get their first chance to dress up and shake a festive leg, al fresco, in Holon for the first time in three years. The peripatetic cast includes circus acts, audience participation dancing, giant art installations and all sorts of characters in a multifarious multitude of mad polychromic getups. 

This year’s Holon Adloyada is spreading its wings, with the lineup also featuring some imports, including the Todozancos street theater bunch from Spain; compatriots Alucinarte Animation, who will bring enormous dancing dragons to the parade; and the medieval-style Flag Wavers act from Italy.

The procession ends with a mass party, with this year’s Eurovision Song Contest entrant Noa Kirel as the main draw.

Purim events in Rehovot

Meanwhile, 20 km. southward down Route 40, residents of Rehovot have their own Adloyada to shout about on March 7, starting at Park Hameyasdim at 10 a.m. through to 2:30 p.m.

This year’s carnival theme is TV talent shows, with the large stage action screened to the crowd via CC cameras. Top of the bill is children’s entertainment superstar Michal Weizman – aka Michal Haketana – who will appear alongside a circus act, a comedic music group and DJ Gal Malka. The idea is to offer talented local youngsters a chance to strut their stuff together with dance and song troupes from the city.

The park will also be decked out with various entertainment and arts facilities, including a TikTok video section, a Spongebob area with trampolines and slides, inflatable playground facilities and Xtreme activities. After 8 p.m., the park will host a Purim rave for local youth.

Purim events in Givatayim

There is plenty going down on the same day in Givatayim, when the Purim Carnival there takes over Katzenelson Street in the city center from 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. The local municipality has brought in plenty of big guns for the younger crowd, with actor-singer Anna Zak, The Sapir Family and teenage vocalist Ann B all on the bill. 

Offstage the street will be lined with arts and crafts, food stalls, acrobatics shows and costumed characters. The local community center will also pitch in with traditional Purimon parties with plenty of fun activities for small children and youths.

Purim events in Ramat Gan

The neighbors over in Ramat Gan have some celebratory Purim illuminations to look forward to as part of the city’s centenary events. A couple of the most prominent edifices in town – The Museum of Israeli Art; and the police station on Jabotinsky Street, housed in a fortress-style built by the fearsome Sir Charles Tegart during the British Mandate. 

The museum building will provide the backdrop for a comics art video work, while the police station installation will tell the story of the attack carried out on the fortress by Irgun members in 1946, gradually segueing into an interactive creation with members of the public adding their own artwork. The illuminations will run March 5-9. For more information, visit: www.rg100.co.il/#1

Parents looking to enrich their offspring’s cultural development, while having a barrel load of fun in the process, could do worse than to pop along to the Nahum Gutman Museum in Tel Aviv’s genteel Neveh Zedek district, March 6-8. There, kids and youth of various ages can get into storytelling and other creative workshops, and get a handle on interactive musical and artistic creation. For more information: www.gutmanmuseum.co.il

Purim events in Tel Aviv

Naturally, Tel Aviv is not about to let Purim slip by without making the most of the joyous slot in the Hebrew calendar. The funs kicks off at 10 a.m. on March 4, at Sarona Park with a giant party for kids and their parents. The day’s agenda includes acrobatics, food stalls, kiddies’ activities and makeup artists. 

There will be more of the same for the mostly slightly older crowd at Rabin Square on March 6 (4-7 p.m.), with crafts stalls, art workshops, caricaturists, a games area for toddlers and street theater shows. Elsewhere around town, on March 8 (11 a.m.-3 p.m.) Clock Square in Jaffa goes east to the land of the Rising Sun, and will dress up in Japanese attire and decorations to salute the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Israel and Japan. 

For the less sedentary folks, who enjoy their thrills and spills, the Tel Baruch Beach Community Center will set up a skateboard park training facility for all-comers. The program, which takes place 12-4 p.m., also includes a music festival, chill-out areas, T-shirt printing, a graffiti wall, and skateboarding and surfing competitions.

For more information about Purim events in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, see: bit.ly/3Z3n3wg.

Purim events in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, AS always, has plenty of Purim fun and fare lined up for the holiday stretch. Beit Avi Chai has a program that includes a Zoom comics workshop on March 6 (6 p.m.). There will also be live entertainment at the cultural center, with performances of the children’s production Agadot Halevana (Lunar Legends), for four-to-eight-year-olds on March 5 (5 p.m.) and March 6 (11 a.m. and 4 p.m.). For more information, visit: www.bac.org.il

Sonorous sounds have always been a mainstay of Purim fun, which makes the Hebrew Music Museum, on Yoel Salomon Street in the capital, a natural choice for the holiday. There was plenty of music at the lavish banquets laid on by Persian ruler Achashverosh and the museum’s guides, in full Persian regalia, will introduce the public to some of the instruments used back then.

Between March 6-8 visitors, ages four and older, will be able to see, hear and even try playing instruments like the santour (zither), tar (waisted lute) and zarb (hand drum). There will also be guided tours of the museum, as well as VR headset-assisted virtual tours of the ancient Temple. For more information: (02) 540-6505.

The Train Theater at Liberty Bell Park is holding a fancy dress party, for children and parents, on March 8 (12-2 p.m.), and there is a full program of children’s shows and workshops on March 7-8. For more information: *4524 and www.traintheater.co.il/en

There is also a full schedule of municipality events, including staged shows, circus acts, a marching band, dance, theater and more at Safra Square and all the way over to Ben Yehuda Street, on March 8 (11 a.m.-2 p.m.). There will also be a giant-sized street party, complete with DJs and food stalls along Agrippas and Nissim Bachar streets..

Standup comedian Yona Kapach will aim to knock ’em dead at the Payis Culture and Arts Center on March 7 (9 p.m.), while the Yellow Submarine hosts rapper Noroz and a fancy dress competition for local youth on March 6 (9:30 p.m.). For more information about Purim events in Jerusalem, see: www.jerusalem.muni.il/he/experience/events/purim-in-jerusalem

Purim events in Israel's North

THERE IS also plenty going on up North, on the Golan Heights, with a fancy dress guided tour, sculpting, all kinds of edibles and drinkables, and a good, old-fashioned Purim party at Kibbutz El-Rom. For more information: www.odemforest.com, (050) 740-6484 and mandarina.org.il/workshops; did.li/WPeIw and www.eventer.co.il/rinaxbenji

Back on the cultural-arts trail, up North, with a fun festive pun, the Janco Dada Museum at Ein Hod in the Galilee is offering guided tours, activities and events for the whole family with its Adlodada program. 

The agenda, on March 7 and 8, includes a mask-making workshop inspired by the museum’s founder, Marcel Janco, one the pioneers of the Dada avant-garde art movement in the early 20th century. There will also be a guided tour of the sculpture in the artists’ village. For more information: (04) 984-2350 and www.jancodada.co.il

Have fun!