Maimouna
Pronunciations
| Maimouna | (mee-MOO-nah) | listen |
Definitions
n. A celebration, traditionally among North African Jews, right after Passover ends, marking the springtime and the return to eating chametz.
Example Sentences
"My grandma is making muflettas for Mimouna. I can't wait because I'm sick of eating matzah."
Listen to recordings of this sentence: ( Recording 1)
Languages of Origin
- Arabic / Judeo-Arabic
- Modern Hebrew
Etymology
From Judeo-Arabic מָיְמוּן maimun ('luck'), given a feminine suffix, akin to 'daughter of luck' or 'lady luck', perhaps influenced by Textual Hebrew אמונה emuna ('faith').
يمن ym"n (root)
ميمون maymuun (ms. passive participle form from the same root)
ميمونة maymuuna pronounced in Morocco Mimuna (fem. of the former form)
Its use in Jewish English is influenced by its use in Modern Hebrew.
- Sephardim: Jews with Sephardi or Mizrahi heritage
- Israel: Diaspora Jews who feel connected to Israel and have spent time there
- North African: Jews with ancestry in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, or Egypt
- Australia / New Zealand
- North America
- None
Who Uses This
Regions
Dictionaries
Alternative Spellings
Mimouna, Mimuna, Mimounah, Mimunah, Maimounah, Maimunah
Notes
There are several folk etymologies for Maimouna. See more on the history of the word: Aharon Maman. (1991). “מימונה - מדרש השם ומנהגי החג,” in Research on the Culture of North African Jews, ed. Issachar Ben-Ami, 85–95. See more on the history of this celebration from the 18th century to the present: Harvey E Goldberg. (1978). "The Mimuna and the minority status of Moroccan Jews." Ethnology 17.1: 75-87. André Levy. (2018). Happy Mimouna: On a Mechanism for Marginalizing Moroccan Israelis. Israel Studies, 23(2), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.2979/israelstudies.23.2.01. See also Seharane.
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