Purim = randomly dressed up people in Israel

Purim is a Jewish festival about some time in history when an evil guy called Haman tried to kill the jews in the ancient Persian empire, a few hundred years BC. A few people, including Queen Esther (secretly Jewish), managed to foil the plot with the use of disguises and people hiding things. So during Purim everyone dresses up in all sorts of disguises and costumes, kind of like Halloween.

During the week leading up to Purim I'd be walking through Tel Aviv and amongst the street filled with normal looking people there would be a guy dressed up as a leprechaun. In the cafes and restaurants the staff would be dressed up as fairies or other random things.

The dressed up waitress, and my coffee served with Haman's ear - From Tel Aviv friends and scenes

Also on Purim you are supposed to eat a feast and drink tonnes of alcohol. Sounds good to me. Normally Amit and his friends would go to a huge street party in Florentin, a cool suburb of Tel Aviv. But it was raining so we were lame and didn't go out.

However, we did have a big feast at Amit's parents place, which was amazing! And we ate Haman's ears (because he's the bad guy, we eat his ears every Purim). Amit's nephews were dressed up for Purim too, super cute.

The feast at Amit's parent's place - From Tel Aviv friends and scenes