Yennayer

The first month

Yennayer is the first month of the Amazigh (Berber) calendar, and its first day is the New Year. The name is usually explained as joining two Amazigh words, yan, “one”, and ayyur, “month”. In Morocco the day also goes by popular names such as id n yennayer, id seggas or haguza.

In May 2023 King Mohammed VI declared the Amazigh new year a national public holiday. Morocco’s official list of holidays now shows three new years together: the Gregorian, the Islamic and the Amazigh.

A meal for the New Year

At the heart of Yennayer is a special, symbolic meal, richer than everyday food. Dishes differ from region to region. In the Sous, in southern Morocco, families eat tagoula, a porridge of barley served with smen (preserved butter) and argan oil, often decorated for the occasion. The day is a time for exchanging wishes for prosperity and a long life.

Across North Africa, Yennayer rites share a purpose: to keep hunger away, to welcome change and to call for a good harvest in the year ahead.

Counting the years

The Amazigh calendar as a numbered era is modern. In 1980 the Algerian scholar Ammar Negadi proposed counting the years from 950 BC, around the time the Berber king Shoshenq I took the throne of Egypt — which is why the Amazigh year is about 950 years ahead of the Gregorian one. The celebration itself is far older, rooted in the farming year of North Africa.