After Passover Ends, the Feast Begins: Finding Community At Mimouna
(ESSAY) Growing up, the best part of Passover was when it ended.
Missing out on April birthday donuts and class pizza parties, I’d daydream about the first post-Passover meal. My family welcomes back leavened carbohydrates by eating a meal featuring every doughy delight imaginable.
Decades later, nothing has changed. But after attending Mimouna, a post-Passover party of matchmaking, well-wishes and above all, endless carbohydrates, I know I’m not alone.
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Mimouna is a celebratory festival originating from 16th-century Jewish North Africa, culminating the ancestral affliction and torment retold during the Passover seder by welcoming abundance, prosperity and fertility.
The evening begins with singing and dancing. It is customary to dress in vibrant, embroidered caftans called jellabiyas while indulging in a buttered smorgasbord of leavened treats. Mimouna is believed to replicate the Israelites in Exodus experiencing the miracle of manna.
Some claim Mimouna’s namesake comes from the Arabic word “ma’amoun,” meaning “prosperity“ or “luck,” and “emunah” from Hebrew, meaning “faith.” Others attribute it to Kabbalist scholar Maimon, father of Maimonides, acclaimed Jewish thinker and author of “Guide to the Perplexed.”
Bay Area Mimouna organizer Arik Zafrany said Mimouna is a New Year’s celebration.
“The Jewish New Year begins when the Israelites left Egypt in Nisan, not in Tishrei,” Zafrany added.
Nisan comes around March and April, the month Passover is celebrated on the Jewish Lunar calendar. In Moroccan tradition, the Israelites' leaving Egypt is the start of the new year because it is a rebirth, rather than Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebrated in Tishri (typically around September).
The main event of Mimouna is the homemade treats. White tablecloths are meticulously arranged with pink and green marzipan cookies representing spring, dried fruits and muffleta, a silken, thin crepe doused in honey and butter. Others include sweet, milky couscous, ma’amoul, almond cookies with date filling and sfrenj, deep-fried fritters.
“Nothing served is savory; only sweets are served. And everything is homemade,” Zafrany said. “It’s for a sweeter future.”
His wife, Bat El Zafrany, spends the entire day preparing the Maghrebi delicacies fresh for the party, despite the fact that she is unable to take a single bite of chametz until nightfall. Chametz is a category of food, including wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelled that has come into contact with water and been allowed to rise, that is forbidden during Passover.
The Zafrany family has been hosting Mimouna at their San Jose residence for six years. The sweet scent of frying oil lingers multiple blocks, and the door is open all night, welcoming anyone of any faith to celebrate, as is customary.
On my way in, I heard a “Tarbakhu u-tsa'adu,” meaning, “May you succeed and prosper” in a Judeo-Arabic dialect. Some customs suggest hosts dip a piece of lettuce in milk and place it on guests’ foreheads upon entry while reciting blessings of sustenance and abundance.
The celebrations honor Arik’s late mother, a Moroccan immigrant to Israel in the 1960s, who hosted some of the first Mimouna festivals in the country; dignitaries, politicians and neighbors of all faiths attended.
“Adjusting to life in Israel was very difficult for her. Mimouna was an event she cherished,” Zafrany said.
Today, Mimouna is celebrated as a national holiday in Israel. It has also taken the American Jewish community by storm in the past few years. This year, there were large-scale Mimouna ceremonies in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Chicago and New York.
Much like the Passover seder, eating specific foods brings significant symbolism to the table. However, rather than the bread of affliction and bitter herbs, Mimouna features a sweeter set of symbols.
Five gold coins in a centerpiece bowl of flour can be found beside five fava beans on a pastry. Some interpretations also include sets of five dates and eggs.
The number five (“hamsa” in Arabic) is a protective symbol against the evil eye as it symbolizes the five fingers on the hamsa amulet believed to ward off bad spirits. The number five also correlates to the five books of the Torah.
The muffleta and sfrenj are made with flour, milk and honey in reference to the Israelites reaching the promised land of milk and honey. The indulgence of leavened desserts after Passover is believed to welcome good luck and immediate prosperity. Mint, fruits and other green herbs symbolize fruitful opportunity and fertility, associated with spring and an abundant future harvest.
Because North African Jewish families did not keep flour in their homes due to the observance of Passover, it was customary for Muslim neighbors to store their flour and other chametz. On the last day of Passover, in preparation for Mimouna, the flour would be returned and the attendance of the Muslim families would be honored at the ceremony.
Continuing his mother’s legacy of throwing multifaith Mimouna celebrations has been a passion project for Zafrany. Hundreds of families from across different faiths and local regions attend the backyard festivities every year.
Yael Bright is a multimedia culture and religion beat journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.