The culture and customs of the UAE astonish visitors. But the area never makes egotistical declarations about it. UAE really enjoys experiencing different cultures. Here are a few images of Emiratis taking part in the Tan Tan Festival in Morocco in 2023 to demonstrate that this is accurate.
UAE Participates In Tan Tan Festival, Morocco
UAE Showcases Its Rich Culture and Heritage in Morocco’s Tan-Tan Festival #UAE #Culture #Heritage #Morocco #TanTanFestival @UaeRabat pic.twitter.com/X3yqcpgTaj
— UAE Forsan (@UAE_Forsan) July 8, 2023
The Moussem of Tan-Tan in southwest Morocco, which is sponsored by King Mohammed VI of Morocco, was conducted in 2023 with participation from the UAE.
The Festival, which began today and continues until July 12, is an annual meeting of Saharan nomadic tribes that includes many tribes from southern Morocco and other regions of northwest Africa.
The Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee-Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with an array of UAE cultural preservation institutions, is hosting a pavilion during the event to represent the UAE.
What Activities Can Be Witnessed?
Such events provide a chance for people to get together and socialise. The crowd also prefer to trade goods, organise horse and camel breeding competitions, celebrate marriages, and seek the advice of herbalists.
Along with musical performances, widespread chanting, games, poetry competitions, and other oral traditions, the Moussem also features a variety of other cultural manifestations.
Nomadic people coming together from the lengths of the Sahara to celebrate is a unique event altogether. An amalgamation of thirty tribes from southern Morocco and other regions of northwest Africa visits this event. This used to happen every year in May. But the dates shifted due to certain reasons.
The first ever Moussem of Tan-Tan was organised in 1963 to support regional traditions and offer a location for trading, meeting, and celebration, these events assumed the shape of a Moussem (a sort of yearly fair having economic, cultural, and social aspects).
Communities of Bedouin rely heavily on Tan-Tan’s revitalised Moussem to help them maintain their customs and knowledge.
The nomadic communities are now especially worried about maintaining their way of life. The region’s economic and technological changes have drastically affected the nomadic Bedouin groups’ way of life and forced many of them to settle. Moreover, many facets of these communities’ traditional cultures have been lost as a result of urbanisation and rural flight.
Cover Image Courtesy: UNESCO