Here the hammam occupies a central place. It is much more than a public bath. It is at the same time an ancestral tradition, a religious rite, a health necessity and a social practice…
In all religions, water occupies a central place because it is associated with purifying rites. Cleaning the body and soul with plenty of water, chasing away the dirt but also the bad thoughts that cling to us all day long, to leave lighter, as if purified, such is undoubtedly the role of these places dedicated to personal and collective cleansing.
In a country where religion occupies an important place, the passage through the public bath, conceived as a social and religious rite, remains particularly lively.
From a social point of view, the hammams are a must here. It should be noted, however, that it is not at the baths that men and women meet, as they go to the hammam separately. The places are always arranged so that the opposite sexes do not cross paths.
If you go to the baths with your family, you take different neighbourhoods. And in the case where the premises have only one hammam, women and men go there at different times.
The hammam can thus play the role that coffee shops or sports halls can also play: we talk between men and we exchange between women, sometimes intimate or lighter things, hidden from the eyes and ears of spouses.
The hammam, widely present in the daily life of Moroccans, accompanies adolescents into adulthood. At puberty, the young man must take a bath with his elders. He thus leaves childhood, gently, surrounded by those who preceded him on this path. This is an opportunity for the older ones to give him advice and pass on their experience, without the presence of women.
But these also have their rites around the hammam. For example, before her wedding is celebrated, the bride must take a cleansing bath with her family and friends, usually two days before the festivities.
Tradition also requires her to do the same with her in-laws. In addition to the purification, there is also the social rite: it is an opportunity to get to know one's new family more fully and for them to welcome the bride into their intimacy.
By entering a traditional Moroccan hammam, it is a little in this history and in all these ancestral traditions that you register…. Welcome to Marrakech!
The spa of Les Jardins de la Médina is happy to welcome you.
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