Sunday, July 8, 2012

4th of July Berber Wedding

What do you do on the 4th of July in Morocco where there are no barbequed ribs, or beer, or fireworks? You go to a Berber wedding. This wedding was different from others we have attended and observed on neighboring rooftops. It was a traditional Berber wedding starting with the bride’s henna party and continuing the next day and throughout the night until early morning. We weren’t sure who was getting married, except that it was a relative of the couscous co-op women who are nearly all related. Part of what made it fun was that we knew so many people there. The henna party is usually for women and girls with the men hanging around outside and drinking tea.
The bride was dressed in a beautiful gauzy green dress with masses of gold trim, but the other guests were dressed in their day pajamas with many wearing aprons as they were cooking for about a hundred people at the same time. A lunch was served the next day and for this occasion, the bride wore a traditional wedding handira which is a sort of two-sided carpet with large sequins that ties around the shoulders. It must have been incredibly hot but the bride gamely danced away.

The evening celebration was held outside. The night was cool and quite enjoyable. The women were now dressed in their sparkling, lacy, shiny wedding finery. One of the women took me into a bedroom and dressed me up in a tkshita, a wedding caftan with a wide belt. Throughout the second day and night there was much ululating, chanting, singing and dancing the hadous in which everyone joins hands with crossed arms and moves in a circle to the beat of the drum. Fortunately this was a dancing style I could manage.

The singing was a musical style known as ahwash, in which two large choruses engage in call-and-response vocals, accompanied by hand drums. At times it was just the women calling back and forth, at times just the men, and at times everyone. It had a very tribal sound.
The bride didn’t make her evening appearance until after midnight. This time she was dressed in a white sparkly wedding dress. One thing I didn’t understand was about the groom. He wasn’t there. Apparently he would come the day after and take the bride back to his home in Taza. I have no idea how they make it official without the groom.
We didn’t make it to the 4:30 am end but stayed long enough to eat twice—chicken tagine, goat tagine, and sweet couscous—hand rolled of course by the couscous ladies.

So we spent the most American of holidays at the most Moroccan of celebrations.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Typical Summer Morning at the Co-op

This morning at Cooperative Adwal, I sat with the women on a large red and white shaggy wool carpet placed near the door to catch any little breeze. I helped thread muzuns (large sequins) on short lengths of string to be incorporated into a carpet just started on the loom. The work was tedious yet peaceful. We listened to Moroccan music on Z's mobile phone and the shouts of boys playing soccer in the street. The basha's driver came by and greeted everyone, then roared off on his little motorbike. A herd of goats ambled by the doorway. These are things I will miss.