Fez to celebrate Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan circumcision
Morocco, Local, 4/14/2005

Fez, the Idrissid city, dressed in festivity attire, is ready to celebrate, as of today Wednesday and for three joyful days, the ceremonies of the circumcision of the two-year old Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan.

Adorned in the most splendid finery ever, and ornamented by all forms of beatitude and bliss that reign all over the eleven-century old city, Fez expresses its happiness to share with the royal family these memorial days.

The populations of the imperial city, and those of adjacent regions flooded in masses towards the emblazoned squares and parks of Fez where musical bands of the four corners of kingdom will be performing popular music genres of Ahidous, A•ssaoua, Hmadcha, Gnaoua, Ahouach, Abidat Rma, Taqtouqa Jabalia and Guedra, and where horsemen from all over the country joined the city to perform, on ornamented horses the famous Moroccan fantasia.

Though circumcision, removal of the prepuce, is primarily a tradition of Moslems and Jews, it has gained universal practice. In the United States of America more than one million male infants are circumcised each year.

In Morocco, this "operation" was until some decades ago an exclusivity of the barber, who, on appointment, would come to the house of the family, armed with his scissors, and his many archaic utensils. Today, the barber is gradually loosing ground to the physician or male nurses well specialized in the matter.

After the performance of the "surgery," the young boy, center and source of happiness for the whole family, is then dressed in "miniaturized" groom attire, with white "djellaba," white long-sleeved shirt, white traditional trousers, and red or green Fez.

In many families, it is the grandparents who take care of the event. They would make all the necessary preparations, take the young boy, without his father's knowledge, to the barber's or the physician to get circumcised. This old custom is still largely prevailing in many regions.

Some families would hire a horse to take the circumcised young boy on a ride in the neighborhood, amid zaghroudas, cheers and clapping of family, friends and neighbors.

According to scientific findings, circumcision can spare men a number of diseases that they might attract.

Previous Stories:
  Rabat to host 'Mawazine-Rythmes du monde' festival   (4/13/2005)
  Spanish police nab Moroccan for possible involvement in Madrid bombings   (4/13/2005)
  25 million earmarked to rehabilitate Roman Volubilis site   (4/13/2005)
  Birth of Crown Prince Moulay Al-Hassan   (5/8/2003)

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