Esther 9:20

MORDECAI RECOMMENDED THE ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH DAYS OF ADAR

"And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days wherein the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and girls to the poor. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them; because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; But when the matter came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows."

This letter marked the beginning of the Jewish feast of Purim. "Here he wrote to the provincial Jews suggesting that they observe two days, namely, the 14th and 15th days of Adar, annually, with an explanation of why he thought that should be done, but without issuing any order to that effect."[14] Later, when Mordecai's suggestion was favorably received, he issued an order enjoining its observance.

"The month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy" (Esther 9:23). This is the theme of Purim. "Sorrow turned into joy, mourning into dancing, utter destruction into glorious triumph - this is the dominant idea of Purim, to which all else was secondary and subordinate."[15]