12th Month – 14th & 15th Day: Purim

Book of Esther 9:20-22

The Feast of Purim Instituted

Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same month, annually, because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

In dating the festival of Purim, two main methods of calculation can be taken into consideration:

Purim could be celebrated on the 14th day of the 12th lunar cycle, which would always fall on a full moon.

However, it can be assumed that translators have substituted the “12th month” with the Jewish appelation “Adar”; In that regard, the feast date could be read as the “14th of the 12th month”.

Chanukkah & Purim are not feasts commanded by YHWH, but have been instituted later by the Jews to commemorate YHWH’s miracles within their people group.