Nabi Musa Festival

The Nabi Musa Festival, or mawsim al-Nabi Musa, is a Sufi festival celebrated by Palestinian Muslims at the Mazar Mubarak of Musa alaihissalam. It is a seven-day-long festival characterized by various Sufi practices that is regarded as the largest Islamic festival in Palestine during the Ottoman Sultanate. It is characterized by a Juloos (procession) from Jerusalem to the shrine of of Prophet Musa alaihissalm. It is consider by the Palestinians as the symbol of reaffirmation of their commitment to their heritage, their continued survival on their land, and their opposition to the [Israeli] settlements and occupation. 

Etymology

 The term mawsim al-Nabi Musa is actually an arabic term, where mawsim literally means festival or season whereas al Nabi Musa denotes the attribution to Prophet Musa. It is celebrated in the spring, which included a wide array of rituals and performances including Zikr, Sama, Juloos, etc .

History

The exact date of origin of this festival is unknown, but it was shaped during the early Ottoman era, especially under the leadership of the then- Mufti e Azam of Palestine, Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni, around 1920 and it is celebrated till today by the Palestinian Muslims following the temporary ban due to Israeli occupation in 1997, however, the Palestinian authority  through the Awqaf Ministry began holding the festival again. The festival has been subject to constant change and reinvention over the centuries, it was the events of 1920 – when the first mass protests against Zionism and British colonialism erupted during the gathering in Jerusalem – that cemented Nabi Musa in the Palestinian national consciousness.

References

Halabi, A. (2002). The Nabi Musa Festival under British-Ruled Palestine. ISIM Newsletter, 10, 27

Sorek, Tamir (2015-05-06). Palestinian Commemoration in Israel: Calendars, Monuments, and Martyrs. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-9520-3.

Staff reporter. "Annual Nabi Musa festival begins in Palestine". TRT World. Retrieved 2024-05-01.

Barghouti, Dia (2022-02). "Reviving al-Nabi Musa: Performance, Politics, and Indigenous Sufi Culture in Palestine". New Theatre Quarterly. 38 (1): 48–59. doi:10.1017/s0266464x21000415. ISSN 0266-464X.