Men and women pray separately and don't often mingle in public. But for two days a year, all of that changes. The narrow, dusty streets of the Jewish section are jammed with jubilant men and women, laughing, talking together, wearing their finest festive attire. Thousands of pilgrims have joined them from Europe, Israel and all over the world to celebrate the holiday of Lag B'omer. Morton Arrow, chief rabbi in Stockholm, explains that the holiday occurs on the 33rd day of a solemn 49-day religious cycle during which men traditionally don't shave or cut their hair and there is no dancing or merriment.
People can get haircuts, swim, and begin to enjoy themselves.
They bring out their seven-branched menorah, they dance, they carry on. The Menorah he's talking about is a huge wedding-cake shaped wooden candelabrum that is set on wheels and paraded through the streets of the Jewish village here on Djerba. What is surprising is that the Menorah is adorned like a bride, with long, flowing scarves in bursts of vivid color. As it moves down the street, women with atomizers rush forward to spray the Menorah with exotic, aromatic scents and perfumes. I'm trying to figure out what this all means, when a group of musicians appears and I am literally swept off my feet and pulled along by the throngs of celebrants.