New Year, Christmas, Ashura and then New Year again

Happy New Year everyone, we are now in 1431AH. Yes, the Islamic New year happened on 18^th December by the western or Gregorian calendar.

The farewell to the old year and welcoming of the New Year is an ancient pagan celebration that has been overlaid by various religious festivities.

This week saw Ashura, the tenth day of Muharram (first month of the year). This is said to be the date on which Moses and his followers successfully escaped from the Pharaoh, and was originally a day of fasting. It is also said to be the day on which Adam and Eve were created, the anniversary of the day that Noah landed, the day that Abraham was delivered from the fire and the reuniting of Jacob and Joseph..... so quite a lot to be commemorating. However it was on Ashura, that Huseyn ibn Ali, the grandson of Mohamed and his followers were martyred and so this is an important day for Shia Muslims the world over.

In Morocco, Ashura is mostly seen as a children’s festival, the souks filling up with small drums and just about every toy that was ever exported from Hong Kong. You will find groups of young people sitting round fires all night playing drums and on the day of the tenth (Ashura) children are given freedom to throw water over any adults they come across. Instead of fasting there is a lot (even for Morocco) of sweet things consumed and of course couscous made with the dried tail of the Eid el Kbir ram.

Although Muslims recognise Christ as one of the genuine prophets, they don’t hold with most of Christian ideology concerning his birth and death and certainly do not celebrate Christmas. Although some hotels and shops will sport a bit of tinsel (any excuse) and some fairy lights you will not see a lot in the way of Christmas decorations and so Christmas could pass unnoticed in Morocco.

This Christmas we decided to visit one of the Christian churches in Marrakesh and found a full church choir offering a range of seasonal music. They were great, had very good voices and were full of the joy of singing. They sang many "standard" church songs, old favourite Christmas Carols and works by JS Bach and Cesar Franck. There were also some violin and piano works followed by Congolese choral music that was extremely lively.

Now we are looking forward to our second set of New Year celebrations.

Eid el Kbir (continued)

In the days following the Eid, all over the city you will see skins hanging over the balcony. In most localities an enterprising local will gather them, have them treated and then sell them back to you for a reasonable fee.

In some areas on the second and third day of the Eid they have another use for the skins. These days are marked by the appearance of the Boujeloud – the goat men. This tradition has a lot of different stories behind it, but all involve men dressed up in goat skins. I expect that the tradition can be traced back to before the time when Islam came to Morocco, possibly to the ancient god Pan.

The traditions vary. The Boujeloud I met expect to be given money in return for hitting you with the goat’s feet. Being hit by the Boujeloud is great good luck, unless you don’t have any money on you. If you don’t pay up - you have bad luck for a year. As well as four Boujeloud, the entourage included other local lads dressed up as policemen and a “woman”. The whole gang tour round the village, the Boujeloud and the “woman” dancing together whenever they stop outside a house and the “policeman” deciding when it is time to move on. On the evening of the third day all the money collected is spent on a big party.

Some stories tell that if a man gets hit by the Boujeloud his fertility is assured, similarly any woman hit by the Boujeloud is guaranteed to get pregnant in the following year. I have also read that in some villages the Boujeloud has to mark other boys in the village – these days by throwing flour at them. If hit they have to take their turn at being the Boujeloud next year, but if the Boujeloud is not successful he has to appear again the next year.

Another story I have heard is that the Boujeloud was a man who while dressed in goat skin chased a young, pregnant woman into a mosque. She was so frightened that she miscarried her baby and the young man was doomed to wander Morocco stuck in the goat skins for the rest of eternity as a sort of hairy Flying Dutchman (… until redeemed by the love of a good woman I want to add). But then it doesn’t ring true as he must have had a reason to be dressed as the Boujeloud in the first place. I think that this is possibly an attempt to attach a proper Islamic moral to a pagan custom.

Probably the most celebrated Boujeloud is the Jejouka Boujeloud made famous by the likes of Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) and William Burroughs. In this version of the story the Boujeloud is “married” to one of the local women and in return gives the gift of music to the local villagers. In return for granting authentic psychedelic experiences to visitors, Jejouka has been made famous on the world music scene. Thirty years on the Jejouka musicians still carry on their traditions and produce their music and musical tourists are still beating a track to sit at the feet of the Jejouka master musicians (and yes if there are any Stones fans out there - Pipes of Pan was from Jejouka).

Eid el Kbir

This year I spent the Eid with a family in the province of Taroudant in the south of Morocco.

On the morning of the Eid everyone is up early and wherever possible attending the local mosque for prayers. This is another of the occasions when the mosque conducts the Morning Prayer in the open air as there are usually too many people to be accommodated inside.

Then it is back home for a quick breakfast of bread or cake and tea and then on with the business of the day. The goat or sheep is led out and killed, sometimes by the man of the house and sometimes by itinerant butchers who turn up by appointment or on request to cut the throat and then skin and butcher the animal. As I said in my last post, all the family are there to witness the killing as this is an important part of the religious significance of the day.

A fug of smoke that must be visible from space soon covers Morocco. If you didn’t know it was the Eid you would soon tell, by the smell of barbecued lamb and singed wool, that something was going on.

While the sheep was being disembowelled, the women have been busy getting the charcoal grills ready and almost as soon as the heart, liver and lungs and the protective layer of fat are removed from the still warm body, they are cut up, mixed with coriander, garlic, salt and paprika and grilled. Strangely it always reminds me of “Braveheart” - apart from the paprika and garlic!












Meanwhile granny is burning the wool off the sheep’s head, nibbling at the ears and generally getting it ready for sheep’s head stew later in the week.

All morning, people are nipping in and out of their neighbours wishing them Eid Mubarak and helping out with the preparations for the feasting.

In some families only the offal is eaten on the first day of the Eid, but the family I spent the Eid with had a huge lamb tagine for lunch. After lunch we set off to visit the rest of the family that lives locally, and at each home we were offered kebabs and tagine as well as the usual mint tea and sweet pastries.

For the next few days (the number of days will vary depending on the size of the family and the size or number of sheep) everyone has grilled lamb kebabs for breakfast, and tagine or grilled meat for lunch and dinner. Another delicacy (sorry but I found it disgusting) is made from the stomach and intestines spiced, rolled and dried and then eaten with couscous later in the year.

One sign of my increasing moroccanisation: the first rented flat I stayed in had a large hook in the patio and also drain in the floor – both of which I found a bit strange. Now I find myself thinking as I look around a new house – “now, where will we hang the sheep on the Eid?”