A custom evolved in Jewish communities to celebrate the anniversary of escape from
destruction. These special communal Purims are also called Purim Katan, A Little
Purim. The number of Purim Katan days, both in the Diaspora and in the Land of Israel
during foreign rule, comes to hundreds. Many have been forgotten or have disappeared in
the course of time, and others are recalled only in community annals and in history
books.
Sometimes, such a Second Purim was even established on a day of national mourning if
the redemption occurred on that day; thus Purim of Candea falls on the 18th of Tammuz
(1538) even though Tammuz is a month of mourning, according to Jewish tradition. The
Purim of Ibrahim Pasha on the first day of Av (when festivities are reduced to a
minimum) commemorates the miracle by which the Jews of Hebron were rescued from
the army of Ibrahim Pasha. And there are others.
Sometimes, a Second Purim is established on a holiday without qualms about mixing
celebrations: For example, the Purim of Ancona (Italy, 1740), on the second day of
Succoth, the Second Purim of the community of Carpentras (France, 1651) on the eighth
day of Pesach, when the community was rescued from a blood libel.
At times, a Second Purim was established for a family as happened in Vilna where the
16th of Kislev (1803) is called the Purim of Abraham Danzig. In a nearby military
camp there was a heavy explosion. Many houses were destroyed and there were many
killed and wounded. The house of Rabbi Abraham Danzig, scholar and poet, was in the
area of the catastrophe but was undamaged and its occupants unharmed.
In 1629, Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller, the Rabbi of Prague and the author of the
famous commentary on the Mishnah, Tosefet Yom Tov, proclaimed as a Second Purim
for his descendants the second day of Rosh Hodesh Adar to commemorate his
deliverance from death.
A famous Second Purim is that of Frankfurt-am-Main on the 20th of Adar (1614-15). The
baker, Vincent Fettmilch, who called himself the New Haman organized attacks on the
Jews, who defended themselves. However, after a battle that lasted a full day and night,
they were forced to surrender and were expelled from the city, despoiled of all their
belongings.
After several months, the king of Germany learned that a flagrant injustice had been done
to the Jews. He commanded that the baker be killed, his house destroyed, his body
beheaded, quartered and hung on the gates of the city.
The story of Vincent Fettmilch's crimes and of his punishment were inscribed in German
and Latin on a column erected on the site of his house. The king called upon the Jews of
Frankfurt to return to their homes with full honors, accompanied by a military band and
with a reception by the local authorities. This Purim the Jews called Vincent Purim and
they also proclaimed a special fast and penitence. Rabbi Elhanan Ha'elen composed a
Vincent Megillah in Hebrew and Yiddish.
A Hitler Purim was proclaimed by the Jewish community of Casablanca (North Africa)
on the 20th of Kislev (1942) because on that day it was saved from the Nazi invaders and
their followers. A special Megillah, the Hitler Megillah, was composed (...and the
month which was turned for us from sorrow to rejoicing and the making of holiday and
the giving of gifts to the poor. Cursed be Hitler, cursed be Mussolini... etc.... (from the
Hitler Megillah).