In time of drought, women and children in a number of Amazigh communities of Morocco and Algeria have taken a wooden ladle, dressed it as a bride and carried it in procession through the village, singing to Anzar, the rain. Households along the route pour water over the figure and give food or small gifts, and the collected food is eaten together at the end. The figure is called the bride of Anzar, and in the accompanying songs the rain is addressed as a bridegroom who must be persuaded. The rite is Amazigh in its language and in the name it invokes, and it has been performed by communities that are Muslim, so it should not be described either as an Islamic ceremony or as a survival standing outside Islam.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItAdherents of the tradition 1 ConsecrationNot consecrated; an instrument, not a consecrated object 1 Ritual ContextCarried house to house by women and children with songs addressed to Anzar, the rain; water is poured over the figure and food is collected and shared 1Tradition: Amazigh tradition Attributions
TraditionAmazigh communities of the Maghreb 1 Open Questions
Origin PeriodThe antiquity of the rite is not established; it is known chiefly from twentieth century ethnographic recording 1 Anzar is attested in Amazigh oral tradition and the processions are attested from the twentieth century, with almost no documentary record between the two. Nobody has established what, if anything, connects them. Identity
Also Known AsTaghonja, and ghonja in some communities 1Tradition: Amazigh tradition Category of Sacred ObjectA wooden ladle dressed as a bride and carried in procession in time of drought 1Tradition: Amazigh tradition Observance
Observance NotePerformed by communities that are Muslim, in some places alongside salat al-istisqa, the Islamic prayer for rain, rather than instead of it 1 Learn More
A Ladle Dressed as a Bride
The rite is small, domestic in its materials and unmistakable once seen. A wooden cooking ladle is dressed: cloth wound to make a gown, beads and borrowed jewellery, sometimes a headscarf, so that the utensil becomes a figure of a bride. Women and children carry it from house to house through the village, singing. The songs address Anzar, the rain, and the figure is his bride. At each door water is poured over her and food or small gifts are handed over, and at the end of the round the collected food is cooked and eaten together. In some recorded versions the procession goes to a spring or a field; in others it stays within the village.
Everything in it is ordinary except the address. The ladle comes from a kitchen, the jewellery from the women taking part, the water from the household that has it to spare in a season when it is scarce. What makes the rite a rite is the naming: the figure is Anzar's bride, and the song is a negotiation with the rain in the language of a marriage. Ethnographers recording it in Morocco and Algeria across the twentieth century found local variation in the name of the figure, taghonja and ghonja among others, in who takes part, and in whether the food is shared, given away or offered at a shrine.
Amazigh, Muslim, and Not a Puzzle to Be Solved
It is tempting to file this rite as a pre-Islamic survival, and the temptation should be resisted, because the evidence for the claim is absent rather than mixed. Anzar is attested in Amazigh oral tradition as the rain, and a story circulates in which he demands a human bride; the modern processions are attested from the twentieth century onward. Between the two there is very little documentary record, which is not the same as a record of continuity. What can be said is that the vocabulary of the rite is Amazigh, that the communities performing it are Muslim, and that in several places it has been performed by the same people who also observe salat al-istisqa, the Islamic prayer for rain.
That combination is normal rather than contradictory, and it is the reason the object matters to a reference work. North African religious material is regularly collapsed into an Arab and Islamic account on one side, or presented as a pagan substrate wearing an Islamic surface on the other. Neither description fits a village that prays for rain in a mosque and also carries a dressed ladle through the streets. The rite has lapsed in many communities under urbanisation, migration and religious reform, and in some it has been revived as a marker of Amazigh identity, which is a further layer and not a return to an original state.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The procession belongs to the rain and fertility observances of Amazigh communities in Morocco and Algeria.
The rain bride is carried in an Amazigh custom recorded in the same communities that perform the Islamic rain prayer, and is distinct from it.
Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
How old is the Amazigh rain-bride procession, and does any pre-modern source describe it?
The rite is known almost entirely from twentieth century ethnography. Anzar appears in Amazigh oral tradition, but no documentary record has been identified between antiquity and the modern recording, so claims that the procession is a pre-Islamic survival rest on nothing that can be checked, and no dated alternative account exists.
What would resolve this An attestation of the procession, or of a recognisably related rite, in medieval or early modern Maghribi Arabic writing, in an Amazigh manuscript tradition, or in a travel account with a firm date.
Amazigh philology and the ethnohistory of the Maghreb, with medieval Arabic textual scholarshipMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.