Free Holiday Magick by Rich Storrs Page B

not follow. What was the point? I had said my piece, and now my fate and the fate of my entire people were in the hands of Ahasuerus. And HaShem.
    I did not see Ahasuerus again for two days. I stayed in our room and did not take any food or drink. I prayed and prayed, and whenever the terror of waiting threatened to overwhelm me, I prayed harder.
    On the morning of the day that was to be the end of my people, a servant came and told me she was to escort me outside. I trembled so badly I could barely walk, and a few times the servant had to prop me back up. By the time we reached the outside of the great palace I could no longer see from the fat, hot tears that plagued my eyes, and my breath came in choked sobs.
    Through eyes swollen with terror and grief, I looked upon the scene. A mob of citizens and slaves, men and women and children, stood around a gallows hung with a single noose. I cried out and fell to my knees. The servant did not pick me back up. “No, please!” Instinctually I called out our people’s holiest, most sacred prayer.
    Shima Yisroel, Adonai Elohainu, Adonai Echad!
    Someone touched my arm and helped me to my feet. The familiar voice of my husband whispered into my ear, “Behold your wedding gift.”
    I sniffled and looked.
    Escorted by four royal guards, Haman was led to the steps of the gallows. When he reached the platform he was given pause for last words. He looked around the crowd. As his gaze found me, he spat and shouted, “She’s a witch! Her people are witches, and they must be brought to justice!”
    The executioner then draped a black hood over Haman’s head, muffling his rants. Ahasuerus steadied me against his servant and walked up the steps of the gallows. He opened a scroll and read, in a loud, clear, majestic voice, “Let it be known far and wide that this man, Haman, is a traitor to his king. In his plan to kill the Jews, he has plotted the death of Queen Esther, which is high treason and will be punished accordingly. And so on this day, the day chosen by Haman’s own lottery, he is sentenced to a traitor’s death by hanging, and all Jews are welcome to live freely in Persia.”
    Haman was led into position. The noose was placed around his neck. The lever was pulled. His feet dangled and his body shook.
    The crowd cheered the traitor’s death.
    The mighty Haman would bother us no more.
    Ahasuerus and I lived the rest of our marriage in love and happiness, and every year, on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Adar, we celebrated the survival of my people. I named the holiday Purim, the Hebrew word for “lots,” to remind us all of the arbitrary day Haman chose to have us all massacred. The day that became his last here on Earth.

JAPANESE DOLL FESTIVAL
Doll Trouble
Kimberley Long-Ewing
    The Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival) is celebrated on March 3rd in Japan and is also known as Girls’ Day. Contemporary celebrations center on a special feast for daughters and the setting up of a doll shrine. This can be quite elaborate and is most commonly a display of dolls dressed from the Heian period imperial court. Dolls are set out in the weeks before March 3rd, but must come down by the end of the day on March 3rd or else it is believed that the daughter will have bad luck in marriage. March 3rd is also a day of purification in the Shinto religion. In ancient times, the dolls for this day were made from fiber or paper (origami). People would breathe on them and rub them on their bodies to rid themselves of impurities, and then float the dolls down the river in small boats. These impurities may also take the form of demons or malevolent, trickster spirits. Because the dolls and boats clog up fishermen’s nets, places still using the doll floats will have priests gather them later and take them to the shrine to be burned.
    If spirits are captured within these dolls, how are they trapped and what happens once they are floated down the