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Tonight I dragged prosewitch to a reading of Megillat Esther - the Biblical text read on Purim. People come in costume to hear (and/or read sections of, which I did) the text, drown out the villain's name (Haman), get drunk and party. I had a great time. I hope it wasn't too much of a culture shock for poor prosewitch, though. The Purim story's a raucous one, involving drunken parties, nudity, eunuchs, concubines, false accusations of rape, and a failed genocide of the Jews that culminates with the Jews massacring their would-be attackers. I remember how shocked I was when I realized that the nice gentle story about the new queen of Persia being chosen through a beauty contest, as told by my nursery school teachers, is not actually in the text of Esther. King Ahasuerus actually chooses his nice new bride based on her performance in bed. One rather feels sorry for all the other former virgins competing for the king's favor, who get locked up in the house of the concubines and guarded by eunuchs for the rest of their presumably sexless lives.

( On an entirely different note, some thoughts on possible twelfth- and thirteenth-century pairings, which will probably only amuse you if you know something about the Middle Ages and something about fandom... )