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April 12, 2002/Nisan 30, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 30
Mimouna turns bitter into sweet
BARRY COHEN
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 From left, Gal Taieb, Leah Nahon and Rachel Nahon eat lettuce dipped in honey, symbolically transforming the bitterness of slavery into the sweetness of freedom. Photo by Barry Cohen |
"We are free now. Let's hope the future is sweet for our kids and for us, filled with freedom," says Jean Michell Nahon.
Nahon is a member of one of three families who opened their homes for the Sephardic Mimouna celebration, the evening of April 4, concluding the observance of Passover.
"Basically, the Mimouna is a love event. It's a happy event. It's an event when people wish each other success and prosperity," says Jacky Sebag, head of the Sephardic Community of Arizona, located in Phoenix.
The word "Mimouna" combines the Hebrew/Aramaic root mammon, meaning "riches," and the Hebrew word emunah, meaning "faith," explains Sebag. Its observance is traced back to Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian Jewish minhag, "ritual." Featured foods at the celebrations include honey, nuts, yeast cakes, various sweets and arak, a liqueur.
The Nahon family displayed a bowl filled with freshly risen dough, topped by wheat and fava beans. The wheat relates to the plague of locusts that stripped the Egyptians' fields, and the beans are a sign of fertility, says Nahon. Coins hidden inside the dough represent hopes for prosperity, he adds.
Though Mimouna is celebrated widely in Sephardic homes, all Jews are welcome to take part in it, notes Sebag. Jews of Sephardic and Ashkenazic descent, and a number of sabras, native Israelis, attended the Nahons' open house.
"My favorite thing about (Mimouna) is that it's ritualistic.... We know this is how we break Passover. We break it with friends," says Francine Sumner, an Ashkenazic Jew.
Oren Halfon, who was born in Israel and grew up in Rhodesia, remembers celebrating Mimouna on an Israeli kibbutz as a youth. "Everyone's doors were open to each other. It was a chance to meet new people," she recalls.