The Purim festival, celebrated around the world on Thursday, is one of the most colourful and eye-catching days in the Jewish calendar. The annual celebration in the Hebrew calendar is marked on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar.
The Jewish community don their best fancy dress outfits and take part in the day-long festivities to commemorate the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to exterminate them in the ancient Persian empire 2,500 years ago, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther.