[Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i'm in morocco and it's the month of ramadan the holiest month of the year for muslims it's a time for fasting prayer spiritual reflection and community [Music] i've chosen to visit marrakech during ramadan to learn more about this very important part of the moroccan culture [Music] during ramadan the majority of residents fast during daylight hours and break their fast at sundown yaya is a local for marrakech and he's showing me some of the typical moroccan foods that people break the fast food so you are from i'm from maracas i was born here grew up here study here so you are what they call ma rakshi marakshi when we were child our parents used to give us a trail mix you know instead of money it was like a tradition here for some religious day you know or some day off or whatever they could give us some some trail mix instead of money and when we start to grow up we realize we don't want money no more trailer mix did you like it or did you yeah we're not we're looking at the money after 14 years we start to love money mana then you want the money let's have a look let's have a look mix it do it in the microwave mix it like that there's all different kinds of like all the nuts peanuts some sweet peanuts some peanuts with cheese in the top this is the land of sweets wow there's so many sweets please take the triangle one this one this these two kind of sweets no way to have a moroccan wedding without this no way to have it this one is it's fried dipped in honey and this one is green great okay this one is peanuts with almonds with almonds and this one 100 ounces kind of that okay this is what you have when they're like a wedding yes like when you have a wedding you have like a red carpet for example when you enter like the ladies will serve you like that some some sweets sweet sweets from here and the tea and juice from the other what's it called yes and you can try this one as well this is almonds this is the sweet of ramadan we'll have it with the soup we'll have it later wow so you have the hari recipe wow amazing this is i'm taking you in a streets this from 16th century it's a very old street we call it street of palaces street of palaces yeah how do you say in arabic this works yes wow wow there's windows we call them musharraby windows yeah it's a very conservative architecture i guess the the the riyads and the homes yeah they never have windows looking out to the street exactly inside of the corner for like privacy yes is that to do with like also the religion yes like more clearly because we don't want also our ladies to be seen by people outside okay so you have the windows look inside to the courtyard this is the moroccan or the moroccan pancake and what's it called in like misery specimen and there is no way to be in morocco and don't try this you have to try them you have to try it it goes for breakfast or for afternoon tea moroccan people eat five time with it five times first breakfast second breakfast afternoon tea now lunch afternoon tea and dinner and dinner i'm not fat we're okay so this is like a snack it's like like a pre-dinner snack exactly [Music] we'll try one very good this is this one this is a moroccan soup this is what you break the forest exactly and you'll have it in a special time because this is the time that we break the fast okay it's now this is and this is dates moroccan way to do it is to start with a date first or shapakia and add the soup i will explain for you about the soup the basis tomato with some dry vegetables dry lagoon with some dry vegetables lentils and this is how 90 percent of moroccan people break the fuss on ramadan wow [Music] so it's still even for the younger generation like they go home and even with their parents and family so it's not like you grow up and then you're like okay i'll do something different no no no no here we will keep the traditions of family even if you have children yes so you go take your children to your parents absolutely oh that's pretty nice [Applause] [Music] [Music] after eating many muslims attend special prayers held in the mosques it's a very moving scene to see so many people come together during this holy month and many moroccans will tell you that this experience brings them closer to god [Music] [Music] during ramadan people spend more time with their families and loved ones yaya has kindly invited me to his home to cook and eat the traditional iftar meal with his family [Music] this is it's actually called the tagine this is the third one i didn't know that you could fit like that like straight in the turkey do people um eat this a lot yeah for dinner for dinner for breakfast breakfast as well not this breakfast for a mother not our okay not your normal breakfast but during ramadan yeah we it's very good you eat it during ramadan put some tomatoes in there now smells very very delicious he's so cute malik he doesn't fast because he's too small so what age do you start fasting here for one month it's really hard yeah then we start you start fasting what do you like what do you like about it like how did it make you feel like you know now we're delicious it's the way how you feel like poor people they don't have to eat don't have to drink we help each other this is ramadan it's not just not eating then you say we'll show you how to make a moroccan tea put like four spoons or like three because it's really big fresh mint yes it is fresh [Music] see smells like all of it yes of course oh wow that's a lot of lint huh yeah because we love it and then with the sugar you see how it looks like sugar yes and then you squish it in there see so you can put the the mint in the tea and i leave the sugar in here why do they go really easy why do you go really high so they can make the bubbles is that like a tradition that they have yeah because if the tea was a lot of bubbles it's good it's good yeah that means it's a good tea yes bubble incredible wow oh uh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] no you're not wow [Music] i guess like with the young younger generation that they also want to fast and they want to pray yeah so my parents like hold the parents they have to educate their their children how they like they told them what what happened to them if they don't fast they told them all the dangers like god should like he will never ever forgive you if you break your fast you can forgive your everything but not fasting skinny thank it's like a you entertaining room in an a in a moroccan house they call it a salon so it's usually it's traditional for the mother to decorate the entertaining room yeah [Music] morocco's landscape is dominated by the mighty atlas mountains and their snow-capped peaks can be seen from the city of marrakech these mountains are home to the indigenous people of morocco known as berbers although they call themselves amazir or the free people in the tamizea language thousands of years ago the amazer ruled all of north africa largely through different tribes i'm on my way to a local amazing village called imlil an hour and a half from marrakech i'm going there to learn more about the berber culture [Music] larkin is a local mountain guide who runs his own lodge and shows visitors around the village you can feel that you're at a high altitude it looks like there's like less air the meaning of england it means white white it comes from an aberrate term which is omelee yeah and they named it during the winter time whenever it it does [Music] thank you so these are all berber settlements so we are in the berber countryside and we are our burgers and we are the originated population who lived in morocco when arab came yes to morocco they they got on because was were the cultures similar there is no big difference right in the culture because the the religion becomes by islamic religion so berbers are the muslims as well and arabs are muslims so mostly we are concentrating with everything that comes in the quran the berbers have like their own language in the burger there are about four different dialects so that the dialects are very different yes depending on what region which town which uh area now uh the verbal language now it becomes an official language right now it's starting to be to teach it at school as well as an official language all right very interesting larkan is taking me to meet a local amazing family who have kindly offered to show me their local culture during this holy month so this is [Music] huh [Music] [Music] do you live in this village yeah i'm from from here yeah have you always lived here always yeah i started some years in maracas but always like what do you like about living in in this region in this village of course yeah small village is more quiet peaceful yeah people very friendly yeah yeah i suppose because it's small everyone knows exactly each other right yeah right yeah here we have cherries and walnuts and apples oh white one is true the green one upper black one is warm so beautiful they like a lot of bread right of course is like obligation each meal do people still that everyone makes um you know the bread in this way here yeah in this village not all but style people do it like this yeah they do it like this they prefer it because it gives a better taste yeah exactly doing it in this way yeah people with wood is natural not like not like an oven yeah not like with a garlic or gas and that results in like a better flavor that's a tagine oh wow yes [Music] in [Music] we just heard the call to prayer just on top of the terrace here in this family's home and it's just like such a just feels very special you can just see like everyone kind of gathering around the mask waiting for the call to prayer and then they're going to pray now before they break the fast but it's just a very um very eye-opening experience and life here in this rural part of morocco is so different from you know city life and from marrakech and there's a real feeling of like a community here and especially during ramadan as well when everyone is you know fasting and it's just very special to come here and especially in the month of ramadan and be able to experience it so you can see everyone's coming out of the mosque now and everyone's like rushing back home to break the fast i'm assuming they're probably really like excited to be able to eat and drink here they like to mix a lot of like salt like savory or sweet exactly right wow look at that it just looks so delicious open it stick take a minute two hands and you dip it yes [Music] i always think just small yeah yeah you can tell them that it's so good that it's not it's hard not to take like a big piece first time is not easy so [Music] very good the fabs perhaps enjoy it's nice how everyone you know gathers around yeah cat wants to join in [Music] such an amazing experience coming here and sharing like dinner with the family and it's been really amazing to spend time with the locals and the community and and see like what their local life is like and what it's like during ramadan as well [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah [Music] so we had a good sleep and it was very very silent in the night but we did get woken up i think around five in the morning um the call to prayer and there was like a mosque right outside the the lodge but it's really nice to hear it in the morning and it's just like a very magical when you just kind of wake up and it's dark and you hear the called prayer and today i think we're gonna head into the mountains and do some hiking walk through the berber villages i think there's a waterfall nearby as well which we're going to check out people are starting to clean their um clothes and their rugs in preparation for the end of fasting the end of ramadan when they've welcomed guests so you can see the lots of beautiful handmade rugs that are hanging drying [Music] it's pretty cool like every so often you'll find um you'll see the mules coming by that's the way they transport everything around the villages [Music] one of the main incomes that locals are having here their incomes it's from agriculture and from tourism the most important things that they grow is the walnut and then the second one which is the two the apple trees and the walnut and the apple always grows in a high altitude you can see now the irrigation channel and the water is really really clear because it's the snow that from the mountains it has melted it makes its way down but it looks certainly looks refreshing [Music] he's making the from the racing of the walnut he's making this stuff basically to let it to dry and then they will take it to the market to seal it in the market and this it's a like brushing the tits and brushing the mouth as well of the inner old traditional way each family will have like a plot of land where they can grow these vegetables onions potatoes fresh herbs hi [Music] so it's just a natural waterfall that forms with um the mountains snow belt all the water rushes down and then into the irrigation channels such as incredible scenery [Music] it's all the rugs that are handmade by the people that live in these villages and that is something that's very kind of typical right of the amazigh culture is these rugs are then sold to the souks around morocco and they're all very beautiful and colorful as well [Music] visiting morocco during the months of ramadan has been a very special experience it's been very interesting to learn more about moroccan rituals and traditions joining the locals for the breaking of fast and witnessing hundreds of people coming together to pray has given me an invaluable insight into this religious holiday which brings together people and communities in a very beautiful way it's an experience that i will never forget