REMINDER! If you are reading the story for children, remember that they have to boo, stamp and hiss whenever Haman's name is mentioned!

The story begins many years ago, when Ahasuerus was King over the 127 provinces of Persia. He once threw a grand banquet for all the people in the capital city, Shushan. There were beautiful hangings of precious cloth, divans of gold and silver on floors of alabaster and marble, and golden wine goblets to hold the best of the King's wines. Thus did King Ahasuerus wish to display to the world, the riches of the Persian kingdom and the wonder of his majesty.

Queen Vashti, too, made a feast for the women in the royal palace. On the seventh day, when the King was merry with wine, he ordered Queen Vashti to parade before him and dance for his guests, to show off how beautiful she was. But Queen Vashti refused, and the King was livid. He summoned his palace advisers and asked, "by law, what should be done with Queen Vashti for failing to obey the order of the King?"

The Chief Adviser decreed, "It is not against the King alone that Queen Vashti has sinned, but against all the ministers and all the nations in all the provinces of the King. Supposing all women were to follow this fine example? No woman would respect her husband, and the whole Kingdom would be disgraced.

"Let the King issue a royal edict; Queen Vashti may never again appear before the King, she is to be banished, and her royal title will be given to another woman." So Ahasuerus sent letters to each province, telling of this decision and decreeing that every man should be master in his own home.

But after the King had calmed down, he regretted his hasty course of action. So the King's attendants advised: "Let beautiful girls be sought for the King, and brought to the palace, so that the King may choose another Queen from amongst them."

Now in Sushan there lived a beautiful Jewish orphan girl called Hassadah. She had been raised by her older cousin Mordechai as his own daughter. When the King's edict was read, Hassadah - her name in the Persian language, being "Esther" - was chosen amongst those to be taken to the Palace. But all the while Esther did not divulge her race or ancestry, for Mordechai had instructed her not to tell.

Although Esther was now living in the King's harem, Mordechai still watched out for her and would stroll in front of the harem courtyard every day, to hear news of her. Now each girl took turns to go to King Ahasuerus, and in the morning she would return to the harem. She could not go to the King again, unless the King desired her, whereupon she would be summoned by name.

When the time came for Esther to visit the King, she found favor in the eyes of all who saw her. The King loved Esther more than all the other women; he placed the royal crown on her head and made her Queen instead of Vashti. But still Esther followed Mordechai's counsel, and did not divulge that she was a Jew.

Now one day while Mordechai sat at the king's gate, he overheard a plot between two of the guards to assasinate the King. Mordechai immediately told Queen Esther, who informed the King and so the plot was foiled. The matter was recorded in the Book of Chronicles.

After these events, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman to be his Chief Adviser. But Haman was a proud and arrogant man, who demanded that everyone in the Kingdom should bow or kneel before him. The only person who refused was Mordechai. He answered that he could never worship a man, because he was a Jew, and Jews may only worship G-d.

Haman was filled with rage and spite, and vowed not only to kill Mordechai, but all the Jews. In order to decide which day this would be done, he drew a calendar in the sand and threw stones on it (an old Hebrew word for a stone was "pur"). The lots fell on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

Haman then said to the King, "There is a people scattered and dispersed amongst the others of your kingdom. They keep their own laws and disregard the laws of the King. They are dangerous and subversive and should be destroyed.

"If it so please the King, let a law be issued for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand silver talents to the King's treasuries."

Now the King trusted Haman, so he gave him his signet ring with which to sign the law. Letters were sent to all 127 provinces; to annihilate, murder and destroy every single Jew. Young, old, women and children; all should be put to death on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and their possessions confiscated.

When Mordechai heard of this, he was very distressed, as were all the Jewish people. There was great mourning - fasting, crying and wailing. Esthers maids came and told her what was happening, and the poor Queen was terrified.

Mordechai begged Esther to intercede with the King on behalf of the Jews, but Esther replied, "any man or woman who goes to the King uninvited, risks execution, because that is the law of the Persians. Unless the King chooses to point his golden sceptre at them, then shall they live. But I have never known this to happen, and I have not been summoned to come to the King for thirty days now."

Mordechai sent the following message back to Esther. "Do not think that you will escape the fate of the Jews by being in the palace. For if you stay silent, relief and salvation will come to the Jews from another source, and you and the house of your father will be lost."

So Esther agreed to at least try. She asked that all the Jews fast for three days, as she did herself, and all her maids. Then, on the third day, she put on her finest garments and jewellery and went to see the King.

The King was sitting on his royal throne facing the palace entrance when Esther appeared before him. He saw her and remembered how beautiful she was, and how much he loved her. He raised his golden sceptre and pointed at her, and she approached.

The King said to her, "What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even if it be half the Kingdom, you shall have it."

And Esther replied, "all I desire, Sire, is that the King and Prime Minister Haman come today, to a banquet that I have prepared."

So that evening, both the King and Haman came to Esther's banquet. At the feast, the King again said to Esther, "What is your request, my Queen? Even if it be half the kingdom, it shall be yours." But Esther only requested that the King, and Haman, attend another banquet that she had organised for the following evening.

Proud Haman left happy and content - only he, and the King, were invited to the Queen's party! But on the way home, Haman passed Mordechai at the palace gate and was once more filled with hatred and spite against the Jews.

He arrived home in a foul temper, and his wife Zeresh asked him what was wrong. Then she said, "have gallows erected fifty cubits high, and tomorrow tell the King to have Mordechai hanged on it." Haman liked the sound of this and immediately ordered the gallows to be built.

That night, the King couldn't sleep. He asked his butler to read him a story from the Book of Chronicles, and it just so happened that the butler chose the story of how Mordechai had foiled the assassination attempt. So the King asked, whether Mordechai had ever been rewarded for this, and the butler replied that he had not.

Just then Haman arrived, to tell the King of his plans to hang Mordechai on his gallows. The King asked Haman, "tell me, what should be done with a man whom the King wished to honor?"

Haman was so proud that he immediately thought that the King meant himself. So Haman replied, "I would dress him in a royal garment that the king has worn, and place him upon the King's own horse. Then one of the King's most trusted advisers should lead the horse through the streets of the city, shouting 'This is the man whom the King wishes to honor!'"

The King liked this idea, and said to Haman, "Hurry! Take my robes and my own horse, and go to Mordechai the Jew who sits at the front gate. Dress him royally, and you yourself shall lead the horse. Do not leave out a single thing!"

So Haman took the robes and horse, and dressed Mordechai, and led him through the city streets, proclaiming loudly "This is the man whom the King wishes to honor!" And his hatred and rage against Mordechai, and all the other Jews, grew even more.

But Haman had no time to sit and brood, because he had to make himself ready for the Queen's second banquet. And again the King said to Esther, "What is your plea, my Queen? Anything you wish, anything at all, will be granted you."

Queen Esther replied, "If it please the King, then I would ask for my life, and the lives of the rest of my people. For we are Jews, and we have been sold to be robbed, annihilated, killed and destroyed!"

King Ahasuerus was horrified and said to Queen Esther, "Who is this, that would dare to do such a terrible thing? Who is this persecutor and enemy?"

"That man there - your Prime Minister, Haman!" Esther replied.

The King could not believe his own ears. He rose up and went out into the garden to think. As the King left, Haman fell on Queen Esther to beg for his own life, for he knew that the King's anger would be very great. But just then the King returned from the palace garden, just in time to witness Haman upon the divan where Esther was reclining. The King exclaimed, "he even dares to attack the Queen while I am in the palace!"

And he immediately arranged to have Haman hanged on the very gallows that had been prepared for Mordechai.

On that day, Mordechai was summoned before the King, and the King gave his signet ring to Mordechai, and put him in charge of Haman's estate.

Esther again begged the King to nullify the evil decree of Haman and his plot against the Jews. But this, the King could not do, as it was against the laws of the Persians to withdraw an edict that been sealed with the King's ring.

So Mordechai issued a new edict in the name of the King, and sent orders on scrolls to every province. The King commanded the Jews of every city to gather and stand up for their lives; to annihilate, kill and destroy every army of any nation or province that might attack them, on one day in all the provinces of Persia, on the thirteenth day of Adar.

On the day the enemies of the Jews had thought they would destroy them, the situation was reversed. The Jews gathered to attack those who sought to harm them; but very few did, as fear and awe of Mordechai and the rest of the Jews had fallen upon them.

The Jews of Shushan gathered on the 13th and 14th of Adar, and rested on the 15th. And so Mordechai declared the 14th and 15th of Adar an official holiday, to be days of feasting, rejoicing, sending gifts of food to one another, and giving tzedaka to the poor.