This past Friday was Halloween, the secularized holiday with pagan roots that pokes fun at death. It’s become customary to dress up for Halloween in America, much as Jews dress up in costume on Purim. Are the holidays similar? Certainly both are filled with merry-making, though–in the northern hemisphere Halloween takes place as the nights grow longer and the weather chills while Purim, with its overtones of carnal extremes is about fertility at spring time. Each holiday pokes fun at death in its own way, however. On Halloween, we see living people dressed as ghosts and skeletons, trying to spook each other with haunted houses. On Purim, we celebrate the potential for the doom and gloom of Haman’s degree to be turned on its head as we boldly celebrate life and the potential for any awful situation to turn itself around.

Curiously, one central Halloween custom is to “trick or treat” in which participants receive candy.  On Purim, the mitzvah of mishloach manot is about giving gifts of tasty treats to our neighbors.

Last March a group of UMBC students traveled to Odessa, Ukraine, Baltimore’s sister city, where they celebrated Purim in the community. They still talk about their favorite moments and realize the ideas that have emerged during the trip. Tal Levitas, a senior, seemed to find inspiration in his Halloween costume from Purim in Odessa.

PURIM IN ODESSA OR HALLOWEEN IN BALTIMORE? Find 5 differences: