Costumes and Dancing Are Pervasive in the Annual Jewish Holiday

There were festivities for the Jewish holiday-which also included performances by the CU Marching Band, Hawaiian Dancers Club, and CU Bhangra-culminating in a drag contest.

While some students who attended the Purim entrainment could be overheard saying "it's a Jewish holiday, they're celebrating not being annihilated by something," there is more to the celebratory tradition than a Halloween-like party atmosphere.

"The rest of the year it [cross-dressing] is expressly forbidden. Tonight it is not only allowed but encouraged," Alex Port, CC '09 and coordinator for Religious Life Va'ad, said while clutching a gorilla mask in one hand and adjusting the tie of his Donkey Kong costume with the other.

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An Israeli friend mentioned this to me before, not the crossdressing per se, but the costumes.  It came up due to my love for Halloween and the fact that I still get dressed up, even if it is just to hand out candy.

Someone I know over the Internet had done drag last year.

With respect to the holiday and allowing dragging, I question whether it gets the culture any closer to acceptance of TS/CD/TV.  Implicitly, I pose this same hypothesis towards Halloween.  If anything, they reinforce dressing-up as a novelty.