this is why you should always carry a camera
today i got the urge to go out and walk around and take photos, and it certainly paid off. this is why it rules to live in an urban area! i started out just taking random philadelphia photos like these:
so my walk brought me to rittenhouse square park whereupon i stumbled across a group of people in wacky wigs… i initially dismissed the group (ive found that a group of crazily dressed people in a park in a major urban center is typically unremarkable) until i noticed the fox news camera crew and the prevalence of long beards and black coats. i then remembered that earlier today, a funeral director had told me that tomorrow would be a jewish holiday, but i couldn’t think of one offhand. i put 2 and 2 together and guessed that it must be purim, a thought that was confirmed minutes after by a rainbow wig wearing, trumpet playing rabbi named menachem. for those not in the know, purim, like most jewish holidays, celebrates a story in which someone hates the jews but the jews prevail, in this case it is the story of a persian jew, esther, thwarting the plans of evil haman, an advisor to the persian king (think jafar in aladdin), and saving a bunch of jews. while this is a pretty common thread throughout a bunch of jewish holidays, this holiday is characterized by costume wearing and revelry throughout the celebratory retelling of the story. (look it up, im pretty sure she gets a book in bible (and a poorly retold veggietales)) as an added bonus, you get to eat some decent cookies called hamantashen. they were walking a route that led back to my apartment, and they had brass horns (my favorite instruments), so i decided to follow them back to my apartment. it was a small crowd, but it was certainly entertaining. ive never heard of a purim parade before.
i guess this has shown me that you should always bring a camera everywhere since you never know when something wacky will go down!
