Religion and Rabat

Today was Sunday and it was an unusual Sunday for me because I spent a lot of time outside observing a Moroccan Sunday.  Morocco is one of a few countries in the arabophone world which has adopted the Christian weekly schedule while still abiding by Islamic tradition.  To be more clear, Friday is the day of worship in Islam and thus many Islamic countries have Friday and Saturday as their weekend.  Saturday is technically the first day of the week, but schools and businesses consider Sunday-Thursday as their work week.  Morocco, on the other hand, has a Saturday-Sunday weekend and businesses are mostly closed on Sundays.  Today we asked: why is that?

From what we have gathered the historical influence of France began the Sunday "day of rest" tradition in Morocco.  Friday afternoon and evening is used to prayer and worship, Saturday is a relatively normal day, and Sunday is the second day of rest before the work week begins.  I find it very informative of Morocco's transient position between two cultures to see how they have incorporated both days of worship into their schedule.

To further our research, and also to pay our respects to people that we have lost at home since arriving in Rabat,  two of my friends and I went in search of a church.  There is a magnificent cathedral in Rabat.  Cathedrale Saint-Pierre is situated in the newer neighborhood called "centre-ville" which also houses the Parliament and the train station.  It was built in 1919 and is obviously a Catholic home of worship.  We did not attend the morning worship, but we stepped inside to look at the stained glass.  It was intimidating, we unanimously decided, as all Catholic churches should be.

One important thing to mention is that there is one cathedral in Rabat and hundreds of mosques.  This is similar to the proportion of mosques to churches in Milwaukee.  However, as we have bells ringing all around us in Milwaukee, the call to prayer blares around you in Rabat.  It is a beautiful experience, even though it wakes you up at 5:50am most mornings.