Imilchil
This usually peaceful village surrounded by mountains is turned on its head every September for the 3-day Fête des Fiancés, or marriage market. The festival is an important community event for the sparsely populated and widely spread Aït Hadiddou, Aït Izdeg, Aït Morghad, and Aït Yahia clans, who use the opportunity to socialize, trade livestock, and purchase clothing and hardware before the snow isolates their villages until spring. Here it's the girls -- adorned in a ceremonial serdal (a wool headband decorated with coins and coral) and eyes rimmed with kohl (a heavy dark charcoal) -- who are the star attraction. Singing, mingling, and dancing take place, and if both families agree on a match, a formal engagement, or even a marriage, takes place. The festival is more of a formality, as most of the matchmaking has taken place before the event, and traces back to the story of Isli and Tislit and the days of French occupation, when the Bureau des Affaires Indigènes would arrive during the annual local fair for the compulsory registering of all births, deaths, and marriages.
The tourism board is guilty of perpetuating the legend surrounding the festival, and today thousands of foreign visitors arrive armed with cameras. Regardless, the main purpose of the festival still holds true, and I encourage you to head to the perimeter and walk among the more than 30,000 Berbers in attendance, some of whom are sure to invite you into their tent for a cup of mint tea. The exact dates of the festival change each year, though it's usually held the first weekend of September. ONMT offices around the country post the dates around February. Otherwise, contact the ONMT (tel. 0537/673918; www.onmt.org.ma or www.tourisme.gov.ma) for more details.
During the festival the area is literally covered with tents, erected to house the thousands of locals. A small area to the far east of the main area is usually set aside for Western campers. Traveler-friendly accommodations are limited to a few hotels in the middle of the village, and I strongly recommend prebooking if you plan on coinciding your visit with the festival. The best is Bessou Chabou's Chez Bassou (tel./fax 0523/442402 or 0668/564475; www.chezbassou.com), which has 15 simply furnished rooms, 10 with private bathrooms, for 100dh to 250dh. His restaurant also cooks up a very tasty chicken tagine for 40dh. Two kilometers (1 1/4 miles) north of town on the road to lakes Isli and Tislit is Auberge Kasbah Adrar (tel. 0523/442184), with comfortable rooms and shared bathrooms for 150dh to 250dh double.
This usually peaceful village surrounded by mountains is turned on its head every September for the 3-day Fête des Fiancés, or marriage market. The festival is an important community event for the sparsely populated and widely spread Aït Hadiddou, Aït Izdeg, Aït Morghad, and Aït Yahia clans, who use the opportunity to socialize, trade livestock, and purchase clothing and hardware before the snow isolates their villages until spring. Here it's the girls -- adorned in a ceremonial serdal (a wool headband decorated with coins and coral) and eyes rimmed with kohl (a heavy dark charcoal) -- who are the star attraction. Singing, mingling, and dancing take place, and if both families agree on a match, a formal engagement, or even a marriage, takes place. The festival is more of a formality, as most of the matchmaking has taken place before the event, and traces back to the story of Isli and Tislit and the days of French occupation, when the Bureau des Affaires Indigènes would arrive during the annual local fair for the compulsory registering of all births, deaths, and marriages.
The tourism board is guilty of perpetuating the legend surrounding the festival, and today thousands of foreign visitors arrive armed with cameras. Regardless, the main purpose of the festival still holds true, and I encourage you to head to the perimeter and walk among the more than 30,000 Berbers in attendance, some of whom are sure to invite you into their tent for a cup of mint tea. The exact dates of the festival change each year, though it's usually held the first weekend of September. ONMT offices around the country post the dates around February. Otherwise, contact the ONMT (tel. 0537/673918; www.onmt.org.ma or www.tourisme.gov.ma) for more details.
During the festival the area is literally covered with tents, erected to house the thousands of locals. A small area to the far east of the main area is usually set aside for Western campers. Traveler-friendly accommodations are limited to a few hotels in the middle of the village, and I strongly recommend prebooking if you plan on coinciding your visit with the festival. The best is Bessou Chabou's Chez Bassou (tel./fax 0523/442402 or 0668/564475; www.chezbassou.com), which has 15 simply furnished rooms, 10 with private bathrooms, for 100dh to 250dh. His restaurant also cooks up a very tasty chicken tagine for 40dh. Two kilometers (1 1/4 miles) north of town on the road to lakes Isli and Tislit is Auberge Kasbah Adrar (tel. 0523/442184), with comfortable rooms and shared bathrooms for 150dh to 250dh double.
Details
Bookstore
Available as paperback
and as e-book.
