YOUNGSTOWN — Hannah Kunkel is used to recognizing a longtime Jewish tradition and celebration one letter at a time.

“When I was little, it was my favorite game,” the 16-year-old Greenville, Pa., 10th-grader said. “Since I’ve been old enough, I volunteer and I’ve been running it.”

Hannah was referring to a unique variation of a beanbag toss game in which participants were challenged to knock over letters that spelled “P-U-R-I-M,” for which they were given tickets to redeem for prizes.

The letter choice was anything but random, however. The setup represented and was among the attractions that made up Sunday’s three-hour annual Purim Festival at the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, 505 Gypsy Lane, on the North Side.

Purim is the Jewish holiday that honors the deliverance and saving of the Jews, perhaps around 350 or 400 B.C., from Haman, a Persian Empire adviser to King Ahaseurus. Haman’s intent was to execute all of the Jewish people in the city of Shushan, as told in the Book of Esther, who was the Queen of Persia and had Jewish heritage. After marrying Esther and discovering she is Jewish, however, the king reverses course, and Haman and other enemies are killed instead.

“It’s directly about the story of when evil ran through the Kingdom of Persia named Hamad, who decided to kill all the Jews in the kingdom,” said Gon Erez, the JCC’s program director. “Esther, who was Jewish, saved her people … so we celebrate how we were saved.”

The celebration, which normally takes place in late February or early March, continues today.

One of the more colorful pieces of pageantry for children and adults was a costume contest, which made the carnival resemble a blend of Halloween, Mardi Gras and Easter.

Even though she didn’t dress up, Ruby Forestal, 2, of Liberty, exercised a bit of multitasking. At one point, she seemed to enjoy learning to hit a golf ball through a small hole while doing her best to affix a few prize tickets to her forehead.

In addition, Ruby and older sister, Hayden Forestal, 8, found themselves on opposite sides of the law, at least as far as their selection of costumes was concerned, said the girls’ mother, Liza Sniderman.

“One was a cop and the other was a robber,” Liza said with laughter.

Also part of the festivities was an on-again, off-again playful fight with sword-shaped balloons between Bill Soldan of Youngstown and son, Spencer Soldan, 6.

“I didn’t want to ask for a balloon, I figured I was too old, but he ended up making me one,” Bill said.

At the same time, Spencer carried a Rubik’s Cube with his own embellishments, but minus the inherent challenge, because each small square on the six faces of his 3D puzzle was the same color and covered with smiling face stickers.

The activities also included face painting, an inflatable bounce house and slide, bowling, clowns and a variety of games.

Also on hand were several traditional foods and drinks along with several trays of hamantaschen, which are triangular cookie pastries with apricot and other types of fruit filling and jam — a common item for Purim.

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