Tag #151784 - Interview #84041 (Yacob Hollander)

Before Purim we started making masks from soft paper for Purimspiels. We glue together few layers of paper to make it take the shape of a face. Coloring the mask was most important. We keep it a secret what kind of masks we were to have at Purim. Everybody also prepared a piece to perform at Purim. Children traveled from one house to another with their performances. They got some change or sweets for their performance. My mother changed her paper money for Purim and had a plate full of change at home. Older children made bigger performances and younger children sang or danced. Of course, we didn’t go to poor houses and didn’t stay long in a house. Sometimes it happened that 10-12 children came to a house at the same time. It resulted in fighting. Or older boys asked me to show how much money I’d collected and when I did they took it away from me. So there was nothing left, but crying and reprobate myself for being stupid. Then shelakhmones was taken to houses. There was a nice napkin on a tray and sweets on it: pies, honey cake, nuts, candy and another napkin to cover it. Shelakhmones was taken to relatives, friends, and neighbors. Children also got some change for bringing shelakhmones. We had many relatives and I preferred to visit wealthier relatives with shelakhmones. Once I got enough money at Purim to make my dream come true and buy a ball. We usually played with a ball that we made from cloth.