In the month of April, Tel Aviv leaves behind the last days of rain and cold weather, and starts picking up the pace towards spring and summer events.
Doc Aviv Festival at the Cinematheque
3-12 April 2008
The Tel Aviv Cinematheque is holding its anual Doc Aviv Festival, which is a spring documentary film festival. The cinematheque screens dozens of films from across the globe during the festival week, including the works of some of the most well known documentary filmmakers.
Check the local English newspapers to see what's on or pick up a program at the cinematheque.
Address: 2 Sprinzak St.
Tel: (03) 606-0800
Passover
19-26 April 2008 Passover is one of the most important holidays in Israel and one of the longest holidays too, which makes it a favorite with everyone. This holiday is intended to commemorate the time in which the Jewish people fled Egypt and made their way through the dessert to the land of Israel. It is the holiday of liberty, celebrating the move from bondage to freedom.
On the first eve of the holiday you can expect almost everything to be closed, since it is a very family oriented holiday, though some restaurants do remain open to offer an option for tourists and such. After the hour of dining is over (but it is a for or five hour feast!) there are usually quite a few parties around town to celebrate the spirit of liberation. During the 7 days of the holiday no one is supposed to eat any bread, only Matzo is allowed in memory of the haste in which the Jewish people had to flee Egypt. This means that all grocery stores will not offer any bread and other bread related items (pasta, sometimes rice and many other surprising items). Many restaurants close for the holiday, while others give up the bread or give Matzo instead. But plenty of restaurants don't abide to these municipal regulations and continue serving bread and pasta as they have before.
Besides these restrictions Passover is an excellent time with very good weather, a wide variety of events and high spirits all around.
Teatroneto Theater Festival
22-24 April 2008
The Teatroneto theater festival focuses on monologues, which is in a sense the rawest form of theater. This idea is part of what lead to the festival's name – "teatron-neto"(which means "theater-net", refering to the antonym of "gross"). Some of the finest actors in Israel have performed on the festival's stage and have managed to promote the difficult form of monologue in Israeli theater. Traditionally the festival used to take place in Habima theater and includes only Israeli plays, but this year (2008) it is moving into the alleys of Old Jaffa and hosting six plays from abraod in honour of Israel's 60th birthday.
Mimoona27 April 2008 At the very end of Passover there is the traditional North African holiday – the Mimoona. The main idea of the holiday is hospitality. People make large amounts of North African (especially Moroccan) food on the night of the Mimoona, the doors of the houses are left open and everybody is welcome to join in on the celebration.
On the next day (the day of the Mimoona itself) it is customary to continue the celebrations with an outdoor Barbeque (as is customary also on Independence Day), and again any people passing by might get a piece of Kebab offered to them. The Mimoona is a lively and "stranger friendly" celebration, and some of the sweet pastries made on its eve are simply out of this world.
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