Purim season has arrived, and with it, the typical fanfare of kids (and some adults) dressed up as astronauts, princesses with magenta or other zany colored wigs, Queen Esther herself, or otherwise in creative costumes, along with the traditions of hamantashens with various flavors and fillings, megillah readings, and of course, the potentially annoying yet beloved noisemaking devices otherwise known as groggers.

Queen Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, is honored each year not only in festivities, but for many Iranian Jews, also sometimes known as the “Children of Esther,” in more solemn pilgrimages to what is believed to be the Queen’s tomb and that of her Uncle Mordechai in the Iranian city of Hamadan.

Each year at Purim whenever the Book of Esther is read and Haman’s name comes up, it is customary to drown out the sound of his name with shaking of groggers (or more creatively in some congregations, boxes of dried pasta or macaroni and cheese) per Jewish traditions.

Grover and his friends star in this animated version of the Purim story from Shalom Sesame.

The word “grogger” is of Yiddish origin for rattle or noisemaker while the Hebrew form of the word is ra’ashan.

Many Jews will celebrate the deliverance of the Jewish people from their certain deaths nearly 2,500 years ago on the holiday now known as of Purim starting at sundown on March 20 and extending through the day of March 21. This coincides with the 14th day of Adar on the Hebrew lunar calendar.