What Purim means: The word means "lots" in Hebrew, and the term refers to a lottery that Haman, adviser to the Persian King Achashverosh, used to determine the date he would kill the Jews.

They rested on the 14th day of Adar. Purim translates to "lots" in Persian. The holiday is named after this because Haman held lotteries to determine what day he would carry out his genocidal plot.