עַדְלָיָדַע (adloyada) — Purim parade / carnival

Etymology

The word עַדְלָיָדַע is a portmanteau built from the Talmudic Aramaic phrase עַד דְּלָא יָדַע — "until he does not know." The phrase comes from the Purim ruling in Tractate Megillah (7b): "Rava said: A person is obligated to become intoxicated on Purim until he does not know (ad de-lo yada) the difference between 'Cursed is Haman' and 'Blessed is Mordecai.'"

The word was coined in 1932 as the official Hebrew name for the Tel Aviv Purim parade and carnival. The parade had been founded in 1912 by Abraham Aldema, a drawing teacher at the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv, who organized his students in costume and marched them through the city — led by a student dressed as Mordecai on a white horse, with another as Haman leading the horse by its reins. What began as a simple procession gradually absorbed the character of a full Venetian-style carnival, shaped largely by the extravagant Purim balls organized by Baruch Agadati, a Tel Aviv arts and nightlife impresario. By 1914 a newspaper was already calling it a "Jewish carnival."

The word karnival (carnival) was the problem. Language purists demanded a proper Hebrew substitute, and in 1932 a public committee was formed and invited suggestions from the public. About 300 proposals arrived: אביביה, אסתרון, בדיחון, גילון, חגיגון, מזמוטים, מסכון, מצעדון, פורימיה, פורימון, קרני בעל, and many others. The committee rejected all of them and chose the suggestion of one of its own members — Yitzhak Dov Berkowitz, the writer and translator who was also the son-in-law of Sholem Aleichem.

The committee announced: "The judges, after long and difficult deliberation, chose the name 'adloyada' based on the Talmudic saying 'a person is obligated to become intoxicated on Purim until he does not know between Cursed is Haman and Blessed is Mordecai' (Megillah 7b). The name is in the feminine form and its sound resembles: Olympiad, and similar words."

Not everyone was pleased. One critic wrote to a newspaper demanding the committee reconvene and annul the "ridiculous and stupid name" adloyada, calling it an "orphan name." But the name survived — at least as long as the parade lasted. World War II interrupted the Tel Aviv carnival, which did not resume until 1955 and finally ceased entirely in the late 1960s. Since then, the main adloyada has been held in Holon, with the word firmly established in the language.

The word karnival itself has an interesting etymology: it originates in the Italian carnevale, from the Latin carnem levare — literally "to raise/remove meat," meaning to abstain from meat (before the forty-day Lenten fast before Easter). The Italian Purim-Carnival connection was not accidental: Jewish communities in Renaissance Italy, living alongside Christian carnival celebrations, adopted the costume tradition for Purim, and the practice gradually spread to other Jewish communities over the following centuries despite rabbinic opposition.

Key Quotes

"אמר רבא מיחייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי." — מגילה ז', ב'

"השופטים, אחר ישוב-דעת ארוך וקשה, בחרו בשם 'עדלידע' על סמן המאמר התלמודי." — הודעת הוועדה, 1932

Timeline

• 1912: Abraham Aldema organizes the first Purim parade at Herzliya Gymnasium, Tel Aviv
• 1914: Newspaper characterizes the parade as a "Jewish carnival"
• Late 1920s: The parade is popularly called "karnival Purim"
• 1932: Public committee convened; ~300 name suggestions submitted; עַדְלָיָדַע chosen
• 1939: World War II begins; parade suspended
• 1955: Adloyada briefly revives in Tel Aviv
• Late 1960s: Tel Aviv adloyada ends permanently
• Present: Main adloyada held annually in Holon

Related Words

• קַרְנָבָל — carnival (the Italian/Latin word the adloyada replaced)
• פּוּרִים — Purim (the holiday)
• עַד — until (the first word of the Aramaic source phrase)
• ידע — to know (Aramaic; same root as Hebrew יָדַע)