The Imilchil Marriage Festival is a unique traditional event held every September in the village of Imilchil, located in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. It is a large gathering where Amazigh tribes from the surrounding valleys meet, The festival is famous as a place where young men and women, dressed in beautiful traditional clothing, can meet and agree to marry, often with a simple handshake in front of their families. Alongside these engagements, the festival features lively traditional music, dance, poetry, and a large market , It is a vibrant celebration of ancient Amazigh culture and community spirit.
the history of this festival
Ait Ibrahim and Ait Yaaza were two factions of the Ait Hadiddou tribe, at war with each other. But legend has it that a young Ait Yaaza girl loved a handsome Ait Ibrahim. Like Romeo and Juliet in the High Atlas Mountains, they shared the same tragic fate: to die without being able to love or marry. They wept for their sorrow, and all the tears in their bodies gave birth to the twin lakes Isli (the fiancé) and Tislit (the fiancée). Their repentant parents decreed that once a year, young men and women could freely choose each other, and that those who decided to marry at the moussem (festival) would encounter no opposition to their union.
Since then, the engagement festival has been held every year in Imilchil, or more precisely in Aït Ameur. It is the great festival of the Aït Hadiddou, which still includes many nomads, and over three days all the events of family life take place: circumcision of children, engagements and weddings.
