Both Christmas and Aïd El Adla are shinny milestones in my childhood memories. After years abroad, I returned to Morocco and photographed my family during Aïd, later creating a parallel series on Christmas in France. Struck by the shared emotional and social stakes, I merged the two: both are rooted in religion but largely secular in practice, centering family, financial pressure, and community boundaries. Sellers—of sheep or fir trees—face a long production cycle for a brief, crucial selling window.
Like a time acceleration.
Later on, in the swirl of memories merging into one another, we rarely remember specific occurrences of these holidays. But as a child, each one of them is of great importance. The joy and excitement meet eternal questions. Sweet sour mix.
What to believe? Where to belong?
How to rise a grown-up on shattered illusions
Yet remain a child ?
