The secret history of the Mimouna festival

It was created by the Jews of Iran and Babylon about 1,500 years ago, and with the Arab conquests and subsequent Jewish migrations, this new holiday was joyfully adopted in all the places they reached. In Morocco, it became one of the most sacred holidays in the Jewish annual cycle!

Nowruz, whose name in Persian means "new day," was the central holiday of the ancient Zoroastrian religion in which the kings of ancient Iran believed. At the core of this religion was the battle between the good god and the evil god (both spiritual entities), between light and darkness. Nowruz falls on the spring equinox when day and night are equal in length, and from then on, light increasingly prevails over darkness—a symbol of the victory of light and good over darkness and evil at the end of days.

The Nowruz celebrations were magnificent and beloved, reaching their peak during the Persian Sassanid dynasty, whose kingdom was defeated in the seventh century by the Arabs. However, even a thousand years after the fall of the Persian Empire, Nowruz continued to be a grand official holiday accepted in most Islamic countries and was called "Nairuz."

Nowruz was a symbol of brotherhood, reconciliation, peace, and friendship between all parts of society. As in the Iranian New Year, so too in Mimouna in Jewish communities which falls at the end of Passover, people would greet each other with "Happy New Year." The first day of Nowruz (which today lasts 13 days) was considered the "day of luck," a day when your conduct and actions would determine your fate in the coming year, and if you were cheerful and happy on this day, the entire new year would be joyful and happy for you.

Therefore, on the ceremonial table of Nowruz, foods and items symbolizing happiness, fertility, and prosperity were placed—as omens for blessing and success in the new year, including: grain stalks and products, eggs, coins, fish, milk and dairy products, abundant greens and many types of sweets, plenty of lighting, and measures against the evil eye. All these items can also be found on the ceremonial tables of Mimouna on the evening after Passover in Iran and Morocco, the two Jewish communities where the holiday reached its peak of glory.

Since Nowruz was celebrated on the day of equinox, all social, class, and gender barriers between men and women, young and old, rich and poor were broken on this day, and all the binding rules of the accepted normative patriarchal morality were shattered. Nowruz was a symbol of brotherhood, reconciliation, peace, and friendship between all segments of society, with all doors open and everyone visiting each other for short mutual visits while exchanging symbolic gifts, culminating in the once-a-year direct and unmediated meeting of the king with his subjects in his palace and mutual gift-giving. On the other hand, Nowruz was the only day of the year when Muslims disguised themselves as Jews, men as women and vice versa. Children behaved insolently toward their parents, women against their husbands, and common people beat the nobility.

These customs are well known from Mimouna in Morocco (and to some extent survived in Iran as well): all house doors were wide open until dawn, everyone visited each other for short mutual visits, people arrived without invitation and enjoyed grain foods and various delicacies and sweets, the host would strike his guests with lettuce leaves dipped in milk and bless them with "Tarbahu u'Tisadu" ("May you prosper and be happy"), and children would whip their father and mother, grandfather and grandmother with green branches.

Jews would disguise themselves as Muslims and men as women, and young men would court young women without the customary family mediation. On this evening, many engagement celebrations took place in Iran and Morocco, based on the belief that holding them on the first day of the year was an omen for successful marriages.

The last day of Nowruz is called "Sizdah Bedar" in Iran (meaning "13 at the door" in Persian), when people would leave their homes to cast out all evil spirits and spend time in fields and gardens near water sources in a spontaneous, light, and relaxed atmosphere. Similarly, the Sephardic and Eastern communities would go out on the day after Passover to gardens and parks near water and enjoy themselves with the whole family and community, using these gatherings also for introductions and matchmaking.

The fact that the Mimouna holiday is a kind of imitation of the Nowruz holiday is further confirmed by the name of the Jewish holiday in various diasporas: in Iran it is called "Saleh No" (the new year), or in short "Sal," the name of the Persian New Year in a Zoroastrian manuscript from the early period. The Kurds call it "Rash Hashata"—New Year in Aramaic, the Iraqis "Ras al-Sana"—New Year in Arabic, the Moroccans—"Mimouna"—day of luck in Arabic, a day that brings luck and good omens for the entire year, while the Jews of Syria simply called it "Nairuz," just as the Persian Jews called the day of going out to the gardens "Sizdah Bedar"...

Given the great popularity of the symbolic and attractive customs of Nowruz among Jews in various places, the sages of Israel succeeded with sophisticated and original genius creativity in converting many of them, while giving them Jewish religious and national meanings. For example, the fact that the month of Nisan is the biblical New Year ("This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you," Exodus 12:2) provided an explanation for the "Happy New Year" greeting customary in the holiday; the "blessing of the trees" common in the month of Nisan was connected to going out to gardens and the abundant greenery placed on the Mimouna table; the coins on the ceremonial table were explained by the great wealth with which the Jews left Egypt, and the fish—to the fish that accompanied the children of Israel at the splitting of the Red Sea. In the evening prayers of the holiday in Morocco and Iran, many poems and hymns of praise and thanksgiving to the Holy One, blessed be He, and longing for the coming of the Messiah and redemption in the Land of Israel were incorporated.

Dr. Esther Shekalim is a researcher of Israeli communities, a curator of Jewish art, and a poet. Visiting researcher at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, Tel Aviv University. The article is based on her book: "What Really Changed? The Influences of the Ancient Non-Jewish Persian New Year (Nowruz) on Passover Customs and the Haggadah in Jewish Communities," Carmel Jerusalem 2024.