The Importance of Blankets

Moroccan homes are stocked with huge numbers of blankets. Until my first winter here, I didn't fully appreciate why that is. I never really thought much about blankets.  I take them out during cold weather, and I put them away when it's warm.  Blankets last for years on end.  I rarely have occasion to buy a new one.  I always kept just enough for family and maybe a couple of guests. Then I came to Marrakech.

Marrakech homes, public buildings, even hospitals may be unheated.  It never snows here. The temperature never goes below freezing, although it gets uncomfortably close.  Understandably, blankets are everywhere.  Got visitors?  Give them blankets and hot tea when they enter your home.  Going to be a patient in the hospital?  Take your own blankets, just to be on the safe side.

Once I was one of a group of female guests in a home, and we were settled for the night side by side on pallet several blankets thick.  We were covered with a couple of individual blankets each, and then the our entire group was covered by the single largest blanket I have ever seen. It measured a good 15 feet across.  We were less likely to be cold than we were to be crushed under the weight of it.

I have seen coarse, heavy blankets substitute for rugs on a cold floor.  I've seen soft, plush blankets folded and stacked as high as the homeowner.  I've seen them stored in closets and beneath sofa cushions. Don't know what to give a bride and groom?  Blankets are probably the most common wedding gift in Morocco. The lowly, utilitarian blanket in America has here an importance borne of necessity.

Moroccan Winters

We are in the midst of the Moroccan winter, which is mild by most American standards, of course, except for the fact that the homes and buildings here are unheated.  It doesn't seem to get down to freezing, but it may get to 40 or 50 or so, with heavy winds and rain on the worse days. Coming into an unheated home  offers little relief  and it's not easy to get used to it.

 I learned quickly that Moroccans compensate in their own ways.  Moroccans have lots and lots of blankets.  Lots of blankets. Moroccan hosts routinely their wrap their guests in blankets as well plying them with with hot tea, coffee and food. A visit to a Moroccan home in mid-winter is reminiscent of a slumber party. Also, a trip to the hammam (ha  MAM), the steam-filled, public baths frequented by Moroccans of all ages, is excellent for restoring warmth.

My first winter here took me quite by surprise.   My Moroccan friends were telling me that heat dries you out and makes you sick.  I looked at them. Yes, right, I got that.  That's why vaporizers and humidifiers were invented.  I was trying to tell them that no heat makes you dead, as in frozen popsicle dead. They looked at me.  They didn't get it.  Although they have had hail in during a bad winter, they had no frame of reference for things like snowdrifts and blizzard or below-freezing temperatures.  I was distressed.

So I've decided now that I need to toughen up a bit and learn to adapt.  I do have space heaters for the really cold weather, but I actually find myself not using them for just "normal" cold days.  I have, instead, discovered the joy (that's not the right word, surely) of wearing up to 5 layers of clothing and sleeping nearly fully dressed.  And of waking up because I'm too hot.