Purim, which takes place on March 5 this year, is one of those joyful holidays when people masquerade, eat special foods, drink wine, and go a bit overboard in celebrating.

Purim occurs between Mardi Gras and Saint Patrick's Day, the time when cabin fever has set in here in the Northeast and people are chomping at the bit for a good raucous party to melt away the winter blues.

It helps to understand the history of Purim to understand why, like many Jewish holidays, it requires the consumption of particular, symbolic foods.

Purim is about surviving evil forces that wished to destroy the Jewish people. The way the condensed version of the story goes, the wicked Haman, minister to King Ahasuerus, plotted to exterminate all Jews in the ancient Persian Empire, but his plot was foiled by Mordecai and his adopted daughter Queen Esther (second wife of King Ahasuerus), who proclaimed that the Purim festival should become an annual celebration (on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar).

Purim is celebrated among Jews by exchanging gifts of food and drink, making donations to the poor, eating a celebratory meal, and engaging in a public reading of the Biblical Book of Esther.

During the reading of the Megillah, in synagogues everywhere, both children and adults dress up like the characters of the passion play, booing whenever Hamen's name is mentioned and cheering on the "good guys" by shaking noisemakers called groggers.

Drinking lots of red wine is a big part of Purim, as the downfall of Haman was attributed to the wine that Esther poured liberally at a banquet. Wine is also a sign of happiness and begins all Jewish religious ceremonies.

In her "Jewish Holiday Cookbook," Joan Nathan describes the diversity of foods that are eaten on Purim in different countries.

Traditional foods at a Purim feast may include kreplakh (soft noodle dough filled with meat), sambusak (Sephardic stuffed pastries), nahit (chickpeas), kasha varnishkes (buckwheat or other grains with shell or bow-tie shaped noodles), poached fruit with wine, and turkey. Turkey, Nathan says, considered to be a stupid animal, is often served in remembrance of Ahasuerus, who was said to be a foolish king.

All kinds of deep-fried and baked pastries are prepared the Jewish world over at Purim. This, Nathan explains, is because as the last festival prior to Passover - when only unleavened bread can be consumed - it's an occasion to use up all the previous year's flour. Therefore many deep-fried and baked pastries are prepared with risen flour (using yeast).

For example, Nathan says, in Morocco women bake small breads filled with hard-boiled eggs; in Iraq they make sambusak or turnovers filled with chicken or cheese; in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, deep-fried pastries are filled with nuts and ooze with honey; and in Russia, women bake strudels, sugar cookies, and the delicacy we most associate with Purim here in the U.S. - Hamantashen, the three-cornered cookies that symbolize Haman's hat.

I can recall helping my grandmother make Hamantashen on the kitchen table when I was a small child. She would roll out the dough and I would have the honor of cutting out circles with a drinking glass. We would then place a dollop of a poppy seed mixture or prune jam in the center, and fold in the sides of the circle to create a triangle.

Over the years, it's become a tradition in this country to make up Purim baskets filled with Hamantashen and other sweet treats to exchange with relatives and friends.

See page D1 for my grandmother's classic Hamantashen recipe, paired with Joan Nathan's recipe for poppy-seed filling.

NANNY BESS'S HAMANTASHEN

Makes about 30 cookies

1 package yeast

¼ cup warm water

2 cups flour

¼ pound butter, softened

2 tablespoons sugar

½ cup sour cream

2 eggs, beaten

¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Dissolve yeast in water. Cut butter into flour. Add yeast, sugar, salt, sour cream, and eggs. Knead the dough and chill overnight in refrigerator.

Roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface and cut circles with the floured rim of a 2-inch glass. Place 1 tablespoon of the filling of your choice in the center of the circle. Pinch together 3 corners to form a triangular shape, leaving some filling showing in center.

Arrange cookies about 1-inch apart on greased cookie sheets for 10-12 minutes or until they're light golden brown.

JOAN NATHAN'S NUT FILLING

From Joan Nathan's "Jewish Holiday Cookbook"

Makes 2 1/4 cups; enough for about 36 Hamantashen; this filling is best made 1 to 2 days before use.

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon cold water

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¾ cup sugar

2 tablespoons raisins

1 ½ tablespoons grated orange zest

½ teaspoon grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons honey

2 ¼ cups coarsely ground pecans or walnuts

2 tablespoons cake crumbs (from pound cake or other leftover cake)

Bring water to a boil in medium saucepan. Whisk in the cinnamon.

Add sugar, raisins, orange zest, lemon zest, and honey, and return to a boil.

Add the nuts and cake crumbs and stir well with a wooden spoon. Simmer on low heat for 3 to 4 minutes.

Pour into a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. The filling will keep for up to 2 weeks.