The Fast of Esther commemorates the three days that Queen Esther fasted before petitioning her husband, King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) of Persia, to spare the Jews of her country from destruction by Haman, the Persian prime minister, in the sixth century BCE. Ordinarily observed on the 13th day of the Jewish month of Adar, this date was originally a minor festival commemorating Judah Maccabee‘s defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor, known as the “Day of Nicanor.” In time it gave way to the present Fast of Esther. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary