Moroccan Feasts and Moussems

Perfumed by mint tea, dazzled by dizrzying fantasias, awed by women in surnptuous robes enigmatically dancing to spellbinding chants … In Morocco, the feasts and moussems stud the seasons with their ancient rites.
From the north to the south of the Kingdom, between 600 and 700 « moussems » are celebrated each year, causing veritable tent villages to arise for both pügrims and tourists. Great popular seasonal feasts, part pilgrimage to the tomb of a saint, part market fair and amusement park, the moussems can take place over a week or three days or even Just on a single day.

Some moussems preserve their purely religious character while others are more renowned for their souk, their fatasias or the sheer excitement they generate all the same, each region takes pride in displaying its local resources, traditionally at the end of harvest. In the Spring, the feast of roses celebrates the gathering of these wild flowers which bloom by the thousands in the region of Kelaa M’Couna. Against a background of colored carpet. and giant paper roses, young girls, their tresses intertwined with multicolored woolen threads, dance joined one to the other the sound of the bendir. The Cherry Feast at Sefrou in the summer, the Date Festival at Erfoud in autumn, the Almond Fair at Tafraoute or the Honey Fete at Immizer des Ida Outanane, ail use the pretext of their fiestas to bring together musical and dance troupes dressed in their most beautiful traditional costumes. With their heads covered by multicolored scarves, with their hair laced with small coins or tied with silver threads, adorned with neck laces of large brown amber or coral balls, subtly made up with henna, the women dance, alternating with the men; to the sound of unchanging chant banded down through generations.

Outliving the fairs of yesteryear, formerly held at the crossroads of the caravan routes, the moussems were also the occasion once a year, for trade between different regions. Today, the moussem of fiances, not far from Imilchil, brings together every yea the Ait Haddidou tribes who are dispersed along the high plateaux of the Atlas Mountains. These engagements or promises marriage are signed by the young couples who have had over the course of several days the opportunity to get to know one another. The immense. souk of colored cloths allows the population to restock their provisions, to renew their livestock and to repair their too, before winter snow closes the vàlley to the outside world for many long months .
At Goulimine, Saharan buyers and sellers come together in the summer for three days in the midst of a huge camel market while guedra dancers, on their knees, bodies completely covered, sway, moving their benna colored fingers to a syncopated rhythm until exhausted. These highly colorful festivals reflect a popular culture which is both mystic and joyful.