Like Burning Man, but with less drugs and more goats

September 12, 2003 5:26 PM

"She didn't seem to care for the hawker selling goats' heads. But she did stop when a young, well-dressed fellow ambled over to her and said: 'You have captured my liver.'" This and other stories from a very well-detailed article on the three-day dating festival of the Berbers of Morocco.
posted by XQUZYPHYR (5 comments total)

"We've come for your liver....."

"But I'm still using it!"

Interesting article, thanks for posting it
posted by Eekacat at 6:00 PM on September 12, 2003

In Elizabethan England, they thought that the heart was the source of romantic love, and the liver the source of sexual desire:

From "The Tempest," Act 4, Scene I
PROSPERO.
Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance
Too much the rein: the strongest oaths are straw
To th' fire i' the blood: be more abstemious,
Or else good night your vow!
FERDINAND.
I warrant you, sir;
The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart
Abates the ardour of my liver.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 6:55 PM on September 12, 2003

"You've burnt my liver!"

This overheard in a N/A version of the dating festival, commonly known as the bar.

Nevermind three days. It's year round!
posted by alicesshoe at 9:06 PM on September 12, 2003

"....Men approached her, usually to say something about their livers. Nearby, men were test-driving mules and loading indignant, roaring camels into trucks.......The dating festival is increasingly turning into a commercial event. This year, the province's governor showed up in a motorcade. One vendor erected a 20-foot-high inflatable Coke bottle.......[it] took place the last three days in August, about 5,000 nomads set up camp in an area the size of three football fields. It turned into a loud, smelly bazaar. Camel and mule owners yelled. Raw meat hung on hooks, and barbecues threw off thick smoke.....

Amazigh! - It sounds sort of like the Burning Man festival.
posted by troutfishing at 6:15 AM on September 13, 2003

my husband and i went to morocco last summer and the people would always smile and hold up their wares and say, "it's berber!" to try and get a better price. even our food was "picked by berbers!" or "cooked by berbers!" i didn't realize before reading this article that the berber population in morocco was so large.
posted by centrs at 8:55 AM on September 13, 2003