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HamantaschenTriangular pastry filled with poppy seed or prune paste, or fruit jams, eaten during Purim. One idea is that the pastries are supposed to symbolize the defeated enemy of the Jewish people, and thus resemble the three-cornered hat of Haman. Another idea is that the resemblance of hamantaschen to dice from the ancient Babylonian Royal Game of Ur suggests that the pastries are meant to symbolize the pyramidal shape of the dice cast by Haman in determining the day of destruction for the Jews. Yet another: The word tasch means "pouch" or "pocket" in Germanic languages, and thus the reference may instead be to "Haman's pockets", symbolizing the money which Haman offered to Ahasuerus in exchange for permission to destroy the Jews.
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