Even if your family hails from Plonsk, Pinsk or Minsk, imagine they come from Tangiers, Fez or Marrakesh. That way you can take part in the Jewish Moroccan holiday of Mimouna. Right after Passover ends, those Jews usher in a celebration of liberty, community values, friendship and hospitality.
Mimouna has a connection to the final day of Passover when the Israelites finally reached the Red Sea. Many of the day’s traditions reflect that connection such as going to the beach and putting (sometimes live) fish on the table in remembrance of the splitting of the sea. [http://bit.ly/mimouna1]
In marked contrast with the seder night, when congregants hurried home from the synagogue to begin the Haggadah, congregants on the eve of Mimouna take the time to wish each other: tarbah (success), the special Mimouna blessing: Alallah Mimouna, Ambarka mas’uda, and to enjoy some mahya, a honey-based drink. [http://bit.ly/mimouna2]
“Some believe that Mimouna represents a symbolic new beginning of freedom from slavery, and so sweets are set out on a table with a white tablecloth decorated with flowers and wheat sheaves which is the centerpiece of the Mimouna Day. In the sense of Mimouna being a new beginning, eating these sweets symbolizes a sweet year.” [http://bit.ly/mimouna3]
What about the name “Mimouna?” It may allude to the word emunah, faith. Perhaps the celebration can be traced to the anniversary of the death of Maimon Ben Joseph of Fez, the father of Maimonides. [http://bit.ly/mimouna4]
Not so fast, says Yigal Bin-Nun. The holiday’s Moroccan origins are actually pagan, “a feast day designed to appease a local she-devil, and contained no religious components. In Israel, however, its pagan origins have been ignored.” Bin-Nun adds that “there is nothing to keep future generations from investing old holidays with new-old meaning. Particularly worthy of note is that over the generations, Mimouna eve became a night for young people and lovers, as well as a symbol of Jewish-Muslim solidarity. Because the Jews could not keep chametz in their homes during the Passover holiday, it was customary to give all their flour, yeast and grain to their Muslim neighbors.” [http://bit.ly/mimouna5]
Regardless of its origins, the preferable way to spend the day is at family picnics. What to pack? Daniel Rogov provides a recipe for mofleta (or moufletta) which is the first leavened bread eaten after the Passover holiday and for a Nougat Ice Cream with Honey and Figs (that calls for honey, sugar, figs and the “heaviest possible sweet cream.”) [http://bit.ly/mimouna6] And since the holiday is a remembrance of the splitting of the Red Sea, fish is popular, like baked whitefish (Moroccan-style.) [http://bit.ly/mimouna8]
For those of us whose lineage can only be traced to north of the Mediterranean, did you know that we also have our own (very obscure) post-Pesach tradition? As the holiday ends, Ashkenazi Jews can take pride in Rumplenacht, literally the “night of transferring” back into storage our Passover plates and cutlery and reintroducing the regular chametz wares.[http://bit.ly/mimouna9]
And in my family, Rumplenacht just wouldn’t be Rumplenacht without the traditional trudging to the bakery at two in the morning to wait for the first batch of steaming bagels to emerge fresh from the oven.