I read in a local "Jewish" newspaper that one of the Sefardi congregations is having selihot at 6 p.m. - "p.m." as in "evening."
I watched a brief youtube video, Sephardic Selichot services, where the rabbi and most of the men with him were reciting selihot while wearing tallit and tefillin.
I suppose "different strokes for different folks" and that I should be glad that selihot are being said, regardless of the time.
My Father-In-Law, ע''ה, told me that in Morocco where he lived before making aliyah in the early 1960s, a crier would roam the streets of the Jewish neighborhood (milah) waking up the men by banging on doors and yelling "SELIHOT!" (Women can, but most do not, get up for selihot; likewise, talmedai yeshivot and hakhamim are exempt since they are expected to be up studying well past midnight - generally this exemption is cancelled for the days between Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur.)
In Bet Shean, Israel, largely populated by North African (mostly Moroccan) immigrants, the men would congregate in open areas to recite selihot "קןל רם" (in raised/loud voices) - much to my wife's displeasure. I hasten to add that she was but a child then and wanted her sleep.
The big Sefardi congregation in my neighborhood starts selihot at 6 a.m.. My little congregation starts at "five something"; the "something" depending on the length of the day for the "netz" minyan.
I'd like to start even earlier since the actual selihot prayers are preceded by
Washing the hands (נטילת ידים), with blessing
Morning blessings (ברכת השחר)
Blessings for the Torah (ברכת התורה)
Night prayers of Leah and Rachel (תקון חצות)
at a minimum, then kaddish "al Israel" AND THEN the start of selihot.
According to most authorities, certainly most Sefardi authorities, selihot are recited before sunrise (עלות השחר). This presents a quandary for Ashkenazim - does the hazan don a tallit (gadol) or not given that a tallit is only worn at night once-a-year (erev Yom Kippur). For the Sefardi hazan, no problem; he doesn't don tallit and tefillin until time for regular morning prayers. (Which is why I found the video, ibid., a little strange.)
My congregation is a mix of Ashkenazim and Sefardim - the Sefardim are the majority. We have two (2) rabbis; one, an Ashkenazi rabbi who shows up every morning that he's in town - he is a programmer and occasionally is forced to travel to a client site - even though his time for selihot doesn't start until the week before Rosh HaShanna. Next to him sits another Ashkenazi (no, we don't segregate them or put a makhitza between them and us). When we show up before the sun David - one of the resident Ashkenazim - decides to "play my Ashkenazi card" and doesn't appear until time for the regular morning service. That's OK; come Pesach he can't have kitniyot . . . poor fellow. As it happens, the Sefardi rabbi also works; neither takes a salary.
My little Sucath David selihot book starts off the selihot service in small print with "I got up in the middle of the watch" ("קמתי באשמורת לבקש") to ask forgiveness of HaShemץ. It doesn't say WHICH "watch," but tradition is that it's the midnight watch. Selihot is supposed to start anytime after halakic midnight - that means midnight by a "proportional minutes" clock where hours are adjusted according to the hours of daylight in the day. (I refer to My Zmanim.com.)
I don't need a town crier to come banging on my door to wake me for selihot - the neighbors, mostly Ashkenazi, and the wives, would not appreciate that. But we manage a "minyan plus" every morning.
Sefardim start selihot on the second day of Elul. Maybe we should start asking forgiveness of our offenses to our fellows on the same day. After all, we learn that we must at least try to seek forgiveness from our neighbors before we can approach HaShem on Yom Kippur.
