Mazikan dance

Posted: Wed, Dec 13 2006, 11:48 am Post subject: mazikan dance

I think that's what it's called, but feel free to correct me.
My youngest brother is getting married in a couple of weeks. My family was thinking about this dance, but none of us know anything about it. Customs, etc, and what exactly is done.
Please tell me about ones you had in your family or which you attended.
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Gold Member Joined: Mar 26 2006 Posts: 1484

It�s called the mezinikel dance. Mezinikel is a Yiddish word meaning �youngest child�.
From what I understand, the mother of the choson or kalla (whoever is the mezinikel) comes in dancing with a broom, signifying her sweeping out her empty nest. Then the father and siblings join in, and as soon as the circle enlarges to include cousins and aunts, the men scurry off back to their side of the mechitza.
I haven�t personally been in one, but tht�s what I�ve seen.
I have no idea what the point is.
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Platinum Member Joined: Jul 28 2006 Posts: 5652

Mezinke Madness ( Jewsih Daily Forward)
�We often hear the song �Di Mezinke Oysgegebn� played at weddings where the youngest child of the family is being married. What is a �mezinke� and from what language is the word derived?�

Mezinke and mezinik, the Yiddish words for a youngest daughter and a youngest son, come from Ukrainian, in which mizinets means a �pinky� or little finger, and by extension, the smallest or youngest male child in a family. Mizinka is the feminine of mizinets, but whereas in Ukrainian the feminine was formed from the masculine, in Yiddish the opposite happened, mezinik being the masculine form of mezinke. Interestingly, in neither of the two non-Slavic languages of which close to 90% of Yiddish vocabulary is composed, German and Hebrew, is there a single word for �youngest son� or �youngest daughter,� just as there isn�t any in English or many other languages. And yet one widely spoken language that does have such a word took it from Hebrew! This is Spanish, in which a benjamin is a youngest son, just as Benjamin in the Bible was the youngest of Jacob�s 12 boys.

....many people who do not know Yiddish know the word mezinke from the song �Di Mezinke Oysgegebn,� which is, among Ashkenazi Jews, a favorite at weddings and a must at the wedding of a youngest daughter. Often this song is accompanied by a dance known as the mezinke tantz, in which the parents of the bride sit in the center of a circle and the wedding guests dance around them with brooms. The explanation commonly given for this custom is that the brooms symbolize the �sweeping out� of the last unmarried daughter in the family, and while it sounds suspiciously ex post facto to me, I can�t think of a better one. In traditional Jewish homes it was once taken for granted that daughters were married in the order of their ages, and any parent of girls knows � may the spirit of feminism forgive me � that, far more than in the case of sons, it is a relief from worry when the last daughter has found a mate.

�Di Mezinke Oysgegebn� has a joyous melody and rollicking lyrics that are not easily forgotten.

Posted: Wed, Dec 13 2006, 1:24 pm Post subject:

we did this for my brother...

my mother wore a wreath of flowers in her hair, we decorated a broom and the kallah sat on a chair as we danced around while my mother 'swept' my brother t the empty chair next to his bride.

it was a lot of fun Smile

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Posted: Wed, Dec 13 2006, 1:57 pm Post subject:

I've heard of this only recently.

I could see it being a simcha - having your last kid married off. As a matter of fact after see one such dance I felt bad for my mother - who did not have this pleasure.
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Posted: Wed, Dec 13 2006, 2:59 pm Post subject: re: mazikan dance

I was the last in my family to get married....
We didn't have a mazinkin dance as it isn't our custom, however my brother decorated a broom with a ribbon and put it up in the living room for sheva brachos one night Smile

Posted: Wed, Dec 13 2006, 3:49 pm Post subject: re: mazikan dance

I think I posted this previously, but the MOST beautiful mezinka dance I ever saw was when my mother's cousin married off her youngest son (of 15 children, ka"h). By then she was already a great-grandmother and you can well imagine how the circle looked - 15 daughters/daughters in law, dozens of granddaughters dancing around her...and her own mother (biz 120) sitting next to her. (No men danced because these are Satmar chassidim.)

In any event, the basic elements of the dance are a wreath and a broom for the mother, and a band that knows how to play the mezinke song.

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 09 2005 Posts: 11840

Posted: Sun, Jul 15 2007, 7:56 pm Post subject: re: mazikan dance

Does anyone know of where I could see a video of this dance? We would like to do it for my brother-in-law's wedding(the youngest of 3 boys), but we have never seen it before. We don't want to look very foolish dancing around with brooms. Boy, it could be a really embarrassing spectacle if we don't know what to do!!!
Embarassed

Posted: Mon, Jul 16 2007, 4:34 am Post subject: re: mazikan dance

my father says that the source for the broom is from fiddler on the roof - nothing special there.
at my uncle's wedding, the youngest of 10, all the females, and grandchildren, danced around my grandmother and great grandmother - kah about 65 grandchildren, plus daughters and dil's. plus, I had just had my first child 2 weeks before, so my grandmother had her first great-grandchild sitting on her lap, while the rest of her family danced around. my grandmother is very into family sticking together even tho we all live so far apart, so that was really special for her.

Posted: Mon, Jul 16 2007, 4:47 am Post subject: re: mazikan dance

Are you sure it is from fiddler on the roof?!?! Doesn't make sense.

My great aunt did it for her son. It was really amazing she just swept him out the 'door'. This was the last of her 14 kids to get married. It was special.
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Posted: Mon, Jul 16 2007, 8:15 am Post subject: re: mazikan dance

My grandmother did not want brooms around - she said she doesn't "sweep off" her children from her house.. Wink

So for my aunts wedding (the mezinikel), we just danced all daughters and granddaughters, showered her with flowers, each one in her turn etc. was beautiful (no men - just the ladies)
I was at another mezinik dance (the last son was getting married), the sons and daughters danced with the mother, it was very emotional...

Diamond Member Joined: Aug 25 2006 Age: 27 Posts: 2919

My youngest brother got married not too long ago and when we told the musician to play the music for the mezinka dance he had no idea what song that was. So we just decided to dance to any song, it still came out nice!! We even gave the brooms to the men and they had fun with it too!!

Diamond Member Joined: Oct 24 2005 Posts: 4689

It's not a specific dance like the waltz or the minuet, with steps you have to learn. Just do the routine simcha shuffle in a circle around the parents, who sit on chairs in the center with wreaths of flowers on their heads--or not. Some stores sell little flower-decorated straw brooms for the occasion--cute, but hardly necessary. Like the dance itslef--cute, but hardly necessary.

Platinum Member Joined: Aug 01 2005 Posts: 11906

I know of at least two people who had the mezinka tantz, and....
....a year later had another baby Very Happy

Posted: Tue, Jul 17 2007, 9:47 am Post subject:

I saw it at a friend's wedding. My question is - if someone is an only child - do you do it then?

Posted: Tue, Oct 28 2008, 9:40 pm Post subject: re: mazikan dance

Does anyone know where I can get brooms or anything else for the mezinka dance?

Posted: Wed, Oct 29 2008, 8:38 am Post subject: re: mazikan dance

Well. I'm happy no one did it for me...
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Posted: Wed, Oct 29 2008, 10:10 am Post subject: re: mazikan dance

Mine was beautiful. First someone put wreaths on my mom and on my 100 year old grandma (a"h). Then, the children started to dance around them in a circle. My dad got in there too and sat next to my mom. All the female children and grandchildren and then my husband's aunt etc. joined in. No brooms. To this day I look at the pictures of the dance and I see the expressions on my parents' faces (the glee of marrying off a 31 year old daughter) and I cry. It was very special. If I can get around to scanning in the picture I will, bli neder.
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Posted: Wed, Oct 29 2008, 11:41 am Post subject: re: mazikan dance

So far, in this thread I don't see any source for this practise in minhag Yisroel, it seems like a more cultural even Yiddishist kind of thing? I'd love to know if there is any mention of this in sifrei kodesh of either halacha or minhag.... Confused

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