Ashura in Morocco

The Day of Ashura in Morocco has been traditionally a day of celebration and joy. Ashura, which is celebrated on the tenth day of Muharram across the Muslim World and is particularly significant for Shia Muslims, where it is a day of mourning.

In Morocco, where the Muslim population is Sunni, the local customs associated with Ashura vary across the country. But in most cases, people exchange pastry and mixes of nut fruits and dried raisins and apricot. Additionally, children play with fireworks in the streets and light a fire called the Sh'ala (Arabic: الشعالة‎) and parents and family buy toys for their children.

Some have posited that these customs may be a legacy of the Ummayyad rule who sought to time such occasions of popular public display of joy—often pre-existing in local cultures—with the Ashura day in order to humiliate and counter the mourning of their enemies, the supporters of Ali (Shi'a).^[1] The latter see this day as a great catastrophe since it was the day of the death of Hussein and the slaughtering of his army at the battle of Karbala. However, today in Morocco, the event is not at all associated with the Shia-Sunni conflict and has little religious significance and is seen as merely a folk tradition.

The Right of Papa Ashur

In some regions of Morocco, the right of Papa Ashur is an activity for children during the festival of Ashura, wherein children wander from one house to another wearing masks and fancy dress costumes asking for candy and dried fruits or even money and asking the question "the right of Baba Aichor?" of anyone who answers the door This tradition has become famous recently when it is has been considered as a substitute for fireworks which usually lead to a range of accidents.

City Customs

In some cities, Moroccans call the tenth day of Muharram, Zamzam day. On this day, they spray water on each other. Whoever wakes up first sprays the rest with cold water, and gets lots of children and young people out (especially in the popular neighborhoods) into the streets to spray every passerby with of water. Over the course of the first hours of the morning there are fierce "water battles," especially among friends and neighbors. Whoever refuses to celebrate with "Zamzam water," by sprinkling a little of it on his clothes, may be exposed to a number of volunteers taking turns dumping all of their water on his clothes. Then the day is capped off with a meal of "Moroccan couscous" with dried meat saved especially for this day from the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha, .

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