Esther 9:20-23

20Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day 1of the same month, annually, 22because on those days the Jews 2rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was 3turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a 4holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and 5sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

23Thus the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.