My first Adloyada

March 12, 2009 - 10:32 AM by Harry · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Holidays

Modiin Adloyada Earlier in the week I attended my local Purim Parade (Adloyada – See Rachel’s always excellent and entertaining Nostalgia Sunday piece here). I don’t like parades. Never got them and standing on the side of the road, often in extreme weather, as sub-mediocre bands and masses of children waving walk by isn’t exactly how I like to spend my mornings. Yes, I’m a cynic. Have been for quite some time now. But I am willing to concede that witnessing life through my young daughter’s eyes is starting to lift the veil a bit and is having, ahem, a somewhat profound effect on me.

As we approached the crowd my daughter, dressed as a bumblebee, grew visibly excited with a highly curious “I don’t know what’s going on here” look. My city’s parade is not a glamorous affair. Most of the marchers are from local schools, clubs and sports teams. This didn’t stop her from demonstrating her excitement. “Boys!” she exclaimed as a group of young basketball players ran by dribbling. “Dancing!” she screamed as one of the local dance troupes pranced along as she did a little spin of her own. “Mah Zeh! (Hebrew for “what’s that?”) she asked as a guy dressed in a horrible Shrek costume with his underwear hanging out walked bye.

The Democratic School of Modi’in marched in Gilad Shalit t-shirts and carried banners promoting awareness that even on this happy and celebratory day, Shilat is still in captivity. Thankfully, my little bumblebee didn’t ask about them, because honestly, I wouldn’t know what to say.

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