skitz34 --
I found your question to be especially interesting because it allowed
me to learn come new facts about one of the world's large Islamic
societies.
First, here's a list of the national holidays and festivals celebrated
in Morocco and the dates on which they will occur in 2003:
January 1: New Year's Day
January 11: Independence Manifesto Day
February 12: Eid al-Kebir (Or Eid al-Adha) (Commemoration of
Abraham's Sacrifice) (Religious Holiday)
March 5: Islamic New Year (Religious Holiday)
May 1: Labor Day
May 14: Birth of the Prophet Mohamed (Religious Holiday)
July 9: King Hassan's Birthday
July 30: National Day
August 14: Allegiance Day (Commemoration of Oued Eddahab)
August 20: King and People's Revolution Day
November 6: Anniversary of the Green March
November 18: Independence Day
November 26: Eid Al Fitr (End of Ramadan)
This list was obtained from websites at the following links:
JourneyMart.com: Holidays and Festivals: Morocco
http://www.journeymart.com/tools/country/ctryMorocco.htm
Focus Magazine: National and Religious Holidays: Morocco
http://www.focusmm.com/morocco/mo_holi1.htm
How do Moroccans celebrate their holidays? Major holidays in Morocco
are Muslim feast days, Ramadan, Eid al-Kebir, local celebrations
called Moussems and Green March Day. The activities associated with
these events include the fasting during Ramadan and the feasting
afterwards, the sacrifice of sheep on Eid al-Kebir, and family
togetherness during Moussems. A fuller description of these major
holidays and their celebrations can be found here:
University of Toronto: Morocco: Holidays
http://cwr.utoronto.ca/cultural/english/morocco/holidays.html
Finally you asked about the celebration of Christmas in Morocco.
There are very, very few Christians in Morocco and most of them are
citizens of other countries. In Morocco 99.8% of the population is
Sunni Muslim. One Christian human rights organization has indicated
that the practice of Christian religions is "tolerated" and has not
cited on its website any human rights violations involving persecution
of Christians in recent years. Thus individual, mostly non-native,
Christians presumably are free to observe Christmas privately
according to their own national traditions, even with a tree, if one
can be obtained. However, Islam is the national religion in Morocco
and there is no tradition of Christmas celebration there.
The extent of religious tolerance and persecution in Morocco from the
viewpoint of a human rights organization is discussed at this website:
International Christian Concern: Morocco
http://www.persecution.org/humanrights/morocco.html
Additional Links:
Statistics on religions in Morocco:
Encyclopedia of the Orient: Religions
http://i-cias.com/e.o/morocco_4.htm
Basic facts about the population of Morocco:
Focus Magazine: Morocco: Population
http://www.focusmm.com/morocco/mo_popu1.htm
I was surprised to learn here that there are evergreen trees in the
hills and mountains of Northern Morocco:
National Geographic: Terrestrial Ecoregions
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0513.html
Google Search Terms:
morocco holidays
://www.google.com/search?q=morocco+holidays&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
"christians in morocco"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Christians+in+Morocco%22
morocco evergreen trees
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0513.html
This question was fun to work on. I hope that you are completely
satisfied. If any of the information is unclear, or if any of the
links don't work, please ask for clarification.
markj-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
markj-ga
on
11 Jan 2003 12:44 PST
[This reposting cleans up the formatting in the previous answer.
markj-ga]
skitz34 --
I found your question to be especially interesting because it allowed
me to learn come new facts about one of the world's large Islamic
societies.
First, here's a list of the national holidays and festivals celebrated
in Morocco and the dates on which they will occur in 2003:
January 1: New Year's Day
January 11: Independence Manifesto Day
February 12: Eid al-Kebir (Or Eid al-Adha) (Commemoration of
Abraham's Sacrifice) (Religious Holiday)
March 5: Islamic New Year (Religious Holiday)
May 1: Labor Day
May 14: Birth of the Prophet Mohamed (Religious Holiday)
July 9: King Hassan's Birthday
July 30: National Day
August 14: Allegiance Day (Commemoration of Oued Eddahab)
August 20: King and People's Revolution Day
November 6: Anniversary of the Green March
November 18: Independence Day
November 26: Eid Al Fitr (End of Ramadan)
This list was obtained from websites at the following links:
JourneyMart.com: Holidays and Festivals: Morocco
http://www.journeymart.com/tools/country/ctryMorocco.htm
Focus Magazine: National and Religious Holidays: Morocco
http://www.focusmm.com/morocco/mo_holi1.htm
How do Moroccans celebrate their holidays? Major holidays in Morocco
are Muslim feast days, Ramadan, Eid al-Kebir, local celebrations
called Moussems and Green March Day. The activities associated with
these events include the fasting during Ramadan and the feasting
afterwards, the sacrifice of sheep on Eid al-Kebir, and family
togetherness during Moussems. A fuller description of these major
holidays and their celebrations can be found here:
University of Toronto: Morocco: Holidays
http://cwr.utoronto.ca/cultural/english/morocco/holidays.html
Finally you asked about the celebration of Christmas in Morocco.
There are very, very few Christians in Morocco and most of them are
citizens of other countries. In Morocco 99.8% of the population is
Sunni Muslim. One Christian human rights organization has indicated
that the practice of Christian religions is "tolerated" and has not
cited on its website any human rights violations involving persecution
of Christians in recent years. Thus individual, mostly non-native,
Christians presumably are free to observe Christmas privately
according to their own national traditions, even with a tree, if one
can be obtained. However, Islam is the national religion in Morocco
and there is no tradition of Christmas celebration there.
The extent of religious tolerance and persecution in Morocco from the
viewpoint of a human rights organization is discussed at this website:
International Christian Concern: Morocco
http://www.persecution.org/humanrights/morocco.html
Additional Links:
Statistics on religions in Morocco:
Encyclopedia of the Orient: Religions
http://i-cias.com/e.o/morocco_4.htm
Basic facts about the population of Morocco:
Focus Magazine: Morocco: Population
http://www.focusmm.com/morocco/mo_popu1.htm
I was surprised to learn here that there are evergreen trees in the
hills and mountains of Northern Morocco:
National Geographic: Terrestrial Ecoregions
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0513.html
Google Search Terms:
morocco holidays
://www.google.com/search?q=morocco+holidays&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
"christians in morocco"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Christians+in+Morocco%22
morocco evergreen trees
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0513.html
This question was fun to work on. I hope that you are completely
satisfied. If any of the information is unclear, or if any of the
links don't work, please ask for clarification.
markj-ga
|
,
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