Mawsim

{{Short description|Annual regional festival in Maghreb countries}}

{{See Wiktionary|the annual regional festival in the Maghreb|موسم}}

Mawsim or moussem ({{langx|ar|موسم}}), waada, or raqb, is the term used in the Maghreb to designate an annual regional festival in which worshippers usually combine the religious celebration of local Marabouts or Sufi Tariqas, with various festivities and commercial activities. These are very popular events, often attended by people from very distant places.{{cite web |title= سكان وهران يتحسرون على وعدة سيدي الحسني |website=جزايرس |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/alfadjr/119493 }}{{cite web |title=وعدة سيدي‮ ‬محمد بن‮ ‬يحيى بتيسمسيلت‮ ‬ |website=جزايرس |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/alseyassi/102750}}

Etymology

=Mawsim, moussem=

Mawsim is an Arabic word whose first meaning is 'season'.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

=Waada=

The origin of the name waada comes from the word waad meaning "meeting" and "gathering".{{cite web|url=https://www.djazairess.com/akhbarelyoum/159055 |title=وعدة سيدي أحمد المجدوب ببلدية عسلة تستقطب آلاف الزوار|website=جزايرس |language= ar}}

=Raqb=

The name raqb indicates{{how|date=August 2022}} the pedestrian and equestrian procession of the murids (novices) from all sides towards the place of the customary or ritual festival.

Religious and secular origin

File:Fantasia à Ain Larba.jpg in Algeria]]

A mawsim is an originally religiously motivated festival pilgrimage in the Maghreb in honor of a saint (typically called by an honorific such as sheikh, sidi or mulay).{{cite web|url= https://www.alaraby.co.uk/%D8%B6%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AD-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%86|title=ضريح سيدي عبد الرحمن |website= www.alaraby.co.uk/ |language= ar}} Mawāsim are cultural events linked to the harvest, to Sufi saints, or to nature, so these local festivals are both religious and secular.{{cite web|url= https://www.djazairess.com/echorouk/26115 |language= ar |title=زيارة‮ سيدي‮ عبد‮ الرحمن‮ تقليد‮ شعبي‮ يثير‮ الجدل|website=جزايرس}}

The mawsim at Nabi Musa in Jericho, the most important festival for Muslim Palestinians, took place in spring, a season used for popular holidays since classical antiquity.{{cite book |last= Cohen |first= Amnon |chapter= Al-Nabi Musa – an Ottoman festival (mawsim) resurrected? |title= Mamluks and Ottomans: Studies in Honour of Michael Winter |year= 2006 |pages= 34–44 [38] |editor= David J. Wasserstein |editor2= Ami Ayalon |publisher= Routledge |location= Abingdon, Oxon |series= Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern History |isbn= 041537278X |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGSTgfU7CQC&pg=PA38 |access-date= 30 July 2022}}

Religious and social practices

File:Arbre mythique.jpg of {{interlanguage link|Sidi Lakhdar Ben Khlouf|ar|لخضر بن خلوف}}]]

In the Berber areas of the Maghreb, almost every village had{{clarify|reason=Why in the past tense, discontinued?|date=July 2022}} its saint or marabout and a small domed tomb or mausoleum (qubba) of the same name.{{cite web |url= https://www.djazairess.com/alfadjr/157539 |language= ar |title=وعدة سيدي الحسني.. تظاهرة لم يبق منها إلا الاسم|website=جزايرس}} This feast or ritual of the marabout is celebrated once a year and worshipers come to it from places far away.{{cite web |url= https://www.djazairess.com/elmouwatan/102754 |language= ar |title=أهل فليتة يحتفلون بوعدة الولي الصالح سيدي محمد بن عودة|website=جزايرس}} Some marabout buildings are still being maintained and whitewashed with white paint every few years.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/elitihad/24911 |title=إحياء وعدة الولي الصالح سيدي سحنون التقليدية ببلدية أولاد بن عبد القادر|website=جزايرس}}

Many do not really have a link to a saint or founder, but are annual regional meetings designated for a social or economic purpose.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.el-massa.com/dz/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%A9/%D8%A5%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%88%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D9%84%D9%80%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A|title=إحياء وعدة الولـي الصالح "سيدي أمحمد الواسيني"|first=❊ل عبد|last=الحليم|website=المساء}}

The religious practices relating to the mawsim are based on the tilawa (ritual recitation) of the complete and integral sixty hizbs of the Quran, the Sufi salka.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/eldjoumhouria/62073 |title=اختتام وعدة " سيدي الحسني " بوهران|website=جزايرس}}

A collective recitation of the al-Burda poem adorns the festivities to praise Prophet Muhammad before the start of the Mawlid (Prophet's birthday) celebration and before visiting his tomb in the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/eldjoumhouria/41491 |title=تيميمون تتزيّن للإحتفال بأسبوع المولد النبوي|website=جزايرس}}

Collective catering around large couscous dishes is a central quality of these festivities in order to socialize people attending the mawsim around traditional culinary foods in addition to the recitation of the Quran, Dhikr and Qasidas.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/akhbarelyoum/222329 |title=غليزان توافد كبير على وعدة سيدي حراث بزمورة|website=جزايرس}}

The annual gathering of the descendants of the marabout in this festivity is an opportunity to strengthen family and tribal ties between these cousins, and also to establish family alliances with other siblings and tribes.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/akhbarelyoum/223775 |title=وعدة سيدي عابد بتيسمسيلت تستقطب الزوار|website=جزايرس}}

These religious, sociological and gastronomic aspects make it possible to weld the cultural and existential breaches of patriarchal societies and to preserve the intangible heritage of populations, especially rural ones.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/alfadjr/221643 |title=منطقة وتقاليد وعدة سيدي أحمد المجذوب بالنعامة|website=جزايرس}}

Group salah (prayer), collective tarteel, team tasting of dishes and couscous, choral singing of Al-Burda, appreciation of the artistic performances of fantasia, humming of poems and qasidas, as well as other activities, make mawsim a proven factor of social cohesion and individual appeasement.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/eldjoumhouria/10158 |title=المشوي، الكسكسي والرفيس لفتح الشهية|website=جزايرس}}

Date

The religiously related festivals are often based on the Islamic calendar and thus take place in different hijri months each year changing.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/akhbarelyoum/45682 |title=الزوار "يحجّون" إلى ضريح سيدي عبد الرحمن|website=جزايرس}}

Equestrian games; prominent ''moussem''s

File:Horse fantasia Algeria.jpg in Algeria]]

A mawsim is sometimes accompanied by the equestrian games called Fantasias and other cultural peculiarities.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/eldjadida/10036 |title=وعدة حناشة .. إطعام وصدقات على أمل موسم فلاحي ناجح|website=جزايرس}} Mawāsim and Fantasias include equestrian games as a tradition of regional pilgrimages linked to one another in Islamic times.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.djazairess.com/elmouwatan/3080 |title= "‬وعدة‮" سيدي‮ محمد والشيخ شموع،‮ كسكسي‮ وأشياء أخرى|website=جزايرس}}

Many of the Algerian fantasia troupes perform horse exhibition shown several times a year in different cultural Mawāsim such as that of Sidi Ahmed al-Majzub in Naâma, the Horse celebration of Tiaret, or the Celebration of Sidi Yahia Bensafia in Tlemcen.{{cite web |language= ar |url= http://www.aps.dz/ar/societe/78532-2019-10-25-16-58-55 |title=غليزان: إقبال كبير للزوار على وعدة الولي الصالح سيدي بوعبد الله |publisher=Aps.dz |access-date=2021-01-24}}

The most important Algerian mawsimis that of the oasis of Béni Abbès in the region of Bechar.{{cite web |language= ar |url= https://www.echoroukonline.com/الوعدة-السنوية-لسيدي-محمد-السايح-بغرد/|title=الوعدة السنوية لسيدي محمد السايح بغرداية تجمع شمل الجزائريين|date=July 1, 2019|website=الشروق أونلاين}}

Tan-Tan Moussem is a traditional annual gathering of Berber tribes{{Cite web |language= ar |url= http://www.morocco.com/blog/tan-tan-moussem-an-amazing-cultural-celebration|title=Tan Tan Moussem: An Amazing Cultural Celebration|website=www.morocco.com|access-date=2016-03-21}} from the Maghreb in the southwest Moroccan town of Tan-Tan.{{Cite web |url= http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/moussem-of-tan-tan-00168|title=Moussem of Tan-Tan - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO|website=www.unesco.org|access-date=2016-03-21}} A mawsim is "a type of annual fair with economic, cultural and social functions."