Moroccan Festival in Washington Suburb Draws Thousands of Visitors

By Elizabeth Kelleher
Washington File Special Correspondent

McLean, Virginia -- A small patch of land outside Washington at the McLean Community Center was turned into a real Moroccan "souk," or marketplace, recently, as vendors hawked brightly colored Moroccan clothing, rugs, pottery, brass, jewelry, tile and ceramics.

The souk was the centerpiece of a daylong festival October 2 titled "Magical Morocco: Sahara to the Sea," a collaboration of the Washington Moroccan Club, Friends of Morocco and the community center.

Kader Rhanime, who planned the entertainment for the event, said, "A souk is not a marketplace literally, but a trading grounds -- a cluttery place, full of yelling and shouting." He said, in Morocco, it might be a place where even stories or poems are traded.

The scene near Washington was lively. More than 3,000 visitors came throughout the day to hear lively singing and thumping music, enjoy savory kabobs and couscous, buy vendors' goods and even see a camel up close.

"In Morocco, there is music at the souk, but not this loud!" laughed Amina Elaissami, a former employee of the Moroccan Embassy in Washington who was there to sell imported wares -- tangines, vessels to cook a dish of the same name over an open fire; pottery; colored-glass lanterns; and intricately decorated wooden chests.

Other vendors sold bright tunics and jackets, gold coin belts favored by belly dancers, rugs and painted furniture. An artisan demonstrated rug making as experts described the long tradition.

Musical acts included a group of drummers called "Sounds of Morocco," who played while roving through the crowds in traditional outfits -- tunics and pants called jabadoor. Much of the group's set was devoted to the joyous, lively musical style of Marrakesh, a city in the south of Morocco where the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert converge.

A Moroccan Jewish singer named Pinhas was the biggest hit with the crowd. Many in the audience left off eating lunches of kabobs, roasted vegetables, couscous, hummus and homemade bread, in order to sway and clap during his performance. Pinhas is well known in Morocco for his mix of flamenco sounds with Jewish and Muslim liturgical music and North African secular songs.

Pinhas was joined on stage by Muslim musicians for a finale. That fusion "focuses on what binds us," said Rhanime, noting that Moroccans are Muslim, Jewish and Christian and have lived in peace for centuries.

Organizers, intent on creating a bustling scene, staged a Moroccan wedding at midday. An engaged couple from Bethesda, Maryland, Christie Walser and Thomas Mullins, who will marry later in October in Fes, Morocco, were recruited. While not Moroccan, the couple happened to be arranging their "destination wedding" through a travel agency run by festival organizer Hassan Samrhouni, who is also president of the Washington Moroccan Club. He talked them into the "pre-wedding" at the festival.

Walser, dressed in a white dress, made her entrance carried on an amaria, an elegant, roofed platform supported by long poles held by four men. The men hoisted Walser on the amaria into the air, and they were followed by Mullins on foot, who was also dressed in white. The wedding cortege was accompanied by Pinhas and musicians from The Kasbah Band, who sang and played alongside the dancing amaria bearers. Atop her jostling amaria, Walser smiled and waved to the crowd, and expressed relief afterward that she had not eaten anything earlier.

In traditional weddings in Morocco, the bride is carried to her wedding this way, and sometimes the groom is too, from a different part of the city. Afterward they are lifted together to greet their guests as a married couple. "This shows the joy of her," said Samrhouni. "It is like flying to another place, just before the wedding."

In Morocco, brides have their hands and feet painted with henna, a natural dye that washes off in a few weeks. The festival featured a henna-painting station, which was quite popular with pre-teen girls. Today, in Morocco, Rhanime said, women paint their hands or feet with henna to celebrate any happy occasion.

The Peace Corps, which has roughly 100 volunteers working in Morocco on environmental and youth-related projects, showed a film inside the community center's meeting rooms that quoted Morocco's King Mohammed VI as saying his country is "a buffer zone, a melting pot." He said, "To the people of the West, Morocco is the Orient. To the people of the Orient, Morocco is the West."

The festival too was a melting pot of native Washingtonians, Moroccan immigrants and visitors. Rhanime estimates that 20,000 Moroccan immigrants live in the Washington area. A group of children gave a fashion show, with the emcee naming their local Washington area schools but often noting that a child's outfit was sent from a grandparent in Morocco.

Each year since 1990, the community center has held a cultural festival featuring a different country. Despite predictions of rainstorms on the day of the event, the Moroccan festival attracted the "largest attendance for our fall cultural festivals besides [that for] the Russian culture," said Sam Roberts, the center's events director.

Rhanime said he hopes the day set a precedent. He said he wants to take "Magical Morocco" on the road to Boston, Orlando and New York, which all have large Moroccan populations.

W.USA Channel 9

How'd you like to take a trip to Morocco this weekend - without leaving the area? The McLean Community Center's Fall Cultural Festival will spotlight the Kingdom of Morocco.

Have you ever been to a Jewish wedding? You know how during the celebration they hoist the bride and groom up in chairs? They also do that at a Moroccan wedding and one will be re-enacted at the festival on Saturday. It's just one example of a culture that brings people together.
This is a rare sight in this country - a roving Moroccan band jamming in McLean. You'll see this and more at the McLean Community Center this Saturday as it's transformed into a Marrakesh Marketplace.

“It's about creating a festival atmosphere. Everywhere you look, it's a different scene.”

The famous Moroccan singer Pinhas has flown in for the event. Pinhas is a Jewish Moroccan, which is also his singing style. It blends perfectly with the Muslim style. In the kingdom of Morocco, Jews and Muslims are friends.

“In Morocco, we are all united as one. It’s a good example for others.”

The festival was the idea of Amalisa Assaad, an American who's married to a Moroccan.

“I love the serenity of the people and the joyful culture. I want to showoff my Moroccan brothers and sisters in this community.”

People who come to this weekend's festival will be immersed in Moroccan culture - the clothing, the food, but most importantly the music.

“It brings culture and religion together. Music is an inspiration for us all.”

The festival is at the McLean Community Center this Saturday from 11am to 5pm. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children age 3 to 9-years-old. There will be lots of activities for the kids, including a moon bounce, pony rides, face painting and camel petting!

 نجاح كبيرلمهرجان " المغرب الساحر .. من الصحراء إلى البحر"

    واشنطن

4 - 10 - 2004  ( بقلم قدور الفطومي) عاش فضاء المركز السوسيو تربوي لماكلين ( ولاية فرجينيا) أمس الأول السبت على إيقاعات المهرجان الثقافي الخريفي الذي تركز هذه السنة على المغرب تحت شعار " المغرب الساحر: من الصحراء إلى البحر ".
عكس هذا المهرجان الذي نظمه مركز " ماكلين كومينيتي " بتعاون مع عدة فاعلين وجمعيات مغربية وأمريكية بمنطقة واشنطن ، مختلف أوجه تميز المغرب المعروف بسحر إيقاعاته وألوانه وماكولاته وعبق أريجه.

فبعد تقديم التمر والحليب جريا على العادة المغربية الراسخة ، كان الجمهور الذي حضر المهرجان على موعد مع معرض للفنون التشكيلية أقيم ببهو تكريما للفنانة الراحلة نادية حدو خريجة مدرسة الفنون الجميلة بالدار البيضاء والتي هاجرت إلى الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية حيث شاركت في عدة معارض تشكيلية ونحتية قبل وفاتها خلال السنة الجارية بعد صراع طويل مع المرض.

وكان لهذا الجمهور الكثيف بعد ذلك موعد مع اكتشاف " سوق " به عدة أروقة لعرض منتوجات تقليدية مغربية متنوعة تعكس إبداع ومهارة الصانع التقليدي المغربي. كما اطلع الزوار على مميزات المطبغ المغربي بمختلف انواع مأكولاته.

وكان حفل الزواج على الطريقة المغربية من اللحظات القوية للمهرجان الذي اعتبر الأول من نوعه بالنسبة لبلد إفريقي وعربي، حيث احتفل زوجان أمريكيان بزفافهما على الطريقة المغربية الصرفة ( مع استعمال الزي التقليدي للعريس والعروسة وباقي المظاهر المؤثثة للعرس كالعمارية والنكافة).

وتفاعل الجمهور مع أجواء هذا الحفل الذي نشطته فرق موسيقية قدمت ألوانا فنية مختلفة من الموسيقى المغربية.

من جهة أخرى نظمت أنشطة اجتماعية وتربوية وترفيهية خصيصا لفائدة الأطفال وورشات خاصة بصنع " الطرابيش" والوشم والزينة .

وقد تضمن حفل اختتام هذا المهرجان عرضا للأزياء شارك فيه أطفال أمريكيون ومغاربة وأغنية تحت عنوان "صوت الحكمة" أداها كوهن بنحاس ( فنان مغربي يهودي) وكريم الحامتي مغني الراي المغربي .وتعكس هذه الأغنية الصورة الحقيقية لمغرب السلم والتسامح.

وأعرب رئيس اللجنة التنظيمة للمهرجان السيد حسن السمغوني عن تشكراته العميقة لكل من ساهم في التنظيم الجيد لهذا المهرجان.

وأكد أن هذا المهرجان الذي استغرق تهييئه أزيد من سبعة أشهر يهدف أساسا الى "التعريف بالمظاهر الثقافية والفنية والحضارية للممكلة وإعطاء صورة حقيقية لبلد عربي ومسلم اختار الوئام والسلم بين الشعوب وتكريس التسامج والانفتاح على الثقافات والديانات الأخرى".

وأكد مدير مركز "ماكلان كوميتي " السيد سام روبيرت أن هذا المهرجان الذي خصص للمغرب الساحر قد نظم بمبادرة من " النادي المغربي بواشنطن " و " أصدقاء المغرب" وذلك لوجود جالية مغربية هامة بمنطقة واشنطن وولاية فرجينيا.

وأشار إلى أن المغرب كان هذه السنة ضيف شرف بعد العديد من البلدان كألمانيا وتركيا وروسيا وفرنسا وبلدان اسكندنافية وبلدان من شرق آسيا والبرازيل والبرتغال مؤكدا أن هذا المهرجان حول المغرب الذي حقق نجاحا كبيرا يمكن أن يتم إعادة تنظيمه في السنوات المقبلة.

وقال مدير شركة الخطوط الملكية المغربية بنيويورك السيد محمد سالم عماكي إن من شأن مثل هذه التظاهرات إنعاش السياحة بالمغرب موضحا أنه تم عرض مجموعة من المطبوعات حول المغرب وتوزيعها على زوار المهرجان .

وقد حضر المهرجان أعضاء سفارة المملكة المغربية بواشنطن ونائب القنصل العام المغربي بنيويورك والقنصل الجديد للمغرب بواشنطن وشخصيات أخرى

Festival
Organise par Le Club Marocain du Washington:

Souk marocain à Mc Lean
Dans la banlieue de Washington, un festival made in Maroc attire plusieurs milliers d’Américains

Trois mille visiteurs se sont hâtés à Mc Lean, petite bourgade de la banlieue de Washington, le 2 octobre dernier. Le Centre social s’était transformé en authentique souk marocain, le temps du Magical Morocco Festival. Pièce maîtresse de ce festival d’un jour, le souk offrait un large éventail de l’artisanat marocain. Poteries pimpantes, tapis et vêtements chatoyants s’offraient aux palabres marchandes tandis qu’un artisan dévoilait son savoir-faire de maître-tapissier. L’invité vedette de cette journée n’était autre que le très populaire Pinhas. Le chanteur marocain a séduit le public avec ses mélodies orientales aux accents flamenco. Autre temps fort de la journée, la reconstitution d’un mariage marocain. Rhanime, l’organisateur de cette journée, ne s’attendait pas à un tel succès. Du coup, ils envisage de reproduire « Magical Morocco » à Boston, New York, et Orlando.

Magalie Durdux