The Book Of Esther: The Big Banquet And Oh What A Big Party It Was For All.

Esther 1:3-4

Third year, King produced feast. All princes, servants, Army of Persia, Medes, Nobleman of the Provinces of Persia, were present to see riches, glory of the kingdom, preciousness, great majesty, abundance, a long time, 180 days.

Now, in the third year of King Xerxes reign, he had a feast, to show off the riches and glory of his kingdom. For six months, the king held a feast. 

Notice in verse two that there were 127 provinces. At the bare minimum, there were 127 princes, 127 servants, the army of Persia and so on. That was a lot of people and lot of resources, for a Feast that lasted 180 days. Most Bible versions refer to both the banquet and the feast as the "banquet". However, the Hebrew shows that it was a feast for 180 days, six months and then there was a banquet for seven days, as clearly seen in the following verses

As a side note, please notice that the Medes were mentioned. The Medes are referred, by Josephus, as direct descendants of Japheth, through his Son, Madai. Part of this group of people became the Ashkenazi Jews of today.

Esther 1:5-6

When the time was over, the King provided a banquet for seven days. All people were found Palace Shushan, great and small, court, garden and house. White, fine cotton, and blue, embroidered with cords of linen purple, on silver rods and marble columns; couches of gold silver, on pavement of green, white, shell, onyx marble.

As I said, there was a banquet held, after the Feast, for seven days. Everyone was there, from the noblemen to the peasants. As a quick side note, even though peasant is now considered an ignorant, rude, or unsophisticated person, a person of low social status, in the days of Esther, a peasant was a poor farmer of low social status who owned or rented a small piece of land for cultivation.

Everyone was at the palace and spread out into the court and garden. Everyone!! Now, according to the archeologists, the palace was fifteen hectares in size. Image that... a Palace, the size of 37 acres or 149,733 m².  That was humongous and plenty of room for the people invited to this banquet. The following is a model of the Palace at Susa.

The columns and pavement were extravagantly decked out. To give you an idea of the size of the garden columns, please look at the following picture.

Esther 1:7-8

Drinks offered, served golden vessels different kinds, royal wine plentiful by the king’s hand. Drinking, by decree, lacked not, nor constrained. In this manner the King gave orders , to all the multitude within his house, to make happen to the pleasure of each person.

The historians tell us that Xerxes was the typical over indulgent king. This banquet was no different. Drinking was made available to all and the King gave orders for everyone to enjoy themselves according to their own pleasure. No holds barred, as they say. This was also indicative by the many rooms, within the palace and the garden area. Historians indicated that Xerxes loved the company of women and expected his constituents to act the same way.

It was definitely a big party.

Esther 1:9

Queen Vashti also made banquet for women in the palace of King Ahasuerus.

Even though it doesn't say it, the text implies that Queen Vashti, followed suit and overindulged with a women only style party, of her own.