Esther 9:16-22

16The other Jews who were in the king’s provinces had also assembled to defend and free themselves from their enemies. They killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they did not seize any of their possessions.

17This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and celebration.

18But the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth. They rested on the fifteenth and made it a day of feasting and celebration.

19That is why the Jews who live in the villages and in the unwalled towns make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a holiday for feasting and celebration. They also send gifts of food to one another.

20Now, Mordecai wrote these things down and sent official letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far.

21He established the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as days they must observe every year.

22They were to observe them just like the days when the Jews freed themselves from their enemies. In that month their grief turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He declared that these days are to be days for feasting and celebrating and for sending gifts of food to one another, especially gifts to the poor.