Moroccans to Celebrate Amazigh New Year Today

Rabat – Id Yennayer, January 12, marks the first day of the Agrarian calendar, which makes it New Year’s Day for Amazigh communities across North Africa.

The festival gained official status in Morocco in 2021, with the government announcing that 2022 would mark the first year for nationwide Id Yennar celebrations. But Id Yennayer is still not officially a holiday in Morocco.

Yet the event is annually celebrated by Amazigh communities across the country. While there remain subtle differences or divergences in the Amazigh communities’ way of marking January 12, Amazigh in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Western Egypt all celebrate Id Yennayer with parades, dances, and folklore music.

Marking its 2972nd anniversary this year, Id Yennayer reflects the Amazigh people’s far-reaching history dating back to 950 B.C. Id Yennayer is of historical significance as it corresponds with the enthronement of Amazigh king Chichnaq Pharaoh of Egypt, which gave rise to a new era of an Amazigh dynasty that stretched over the vicinity of North Africa, according to historians.

As Id Yennayer is associated with the god of fertility and agriculture, Amazigh communities historically marked the day by performing rituals and prayers for a fertile harvesting season.

Id Yennar is also associated with longevity and good fortune. Under the good omen of Yennar, families give little boys their first haircut, couples marry and perform agriculture initiation rites by sending children to pick fruits and vegetables for the first time.

The battle for official recognition goes on

Like in other North African countries, this day often coincides in Morocco with peaceful protests demanding the recognition of Id Yennar as an official holiday. But the fight for recognition has been more successful in some countries than in others.

After years of activism, Algerian Amazigh won a symbolic cultural victory in 2017, when then-Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced January 12 a national holiday commemorating the Amazigh new year.

Amazigh activists are making similar demands in Morocco, calling for the integration of the Amazigh new year as a national holiday. Proponents of the Amazigh new year argue that adopting the Yennar on the official calendar will strengthen Morocco’s status as an inclusive country.

Amazigh activists maintain that recognizing Id Yennar as an official holiday will underscore Morocco’s religious tolerance, a step of paramount importance in a world afflicted with religious fundamentalism and extremism.

On the other end of the argument, some Moroccan researchers claim that Yennar is historically void and that it was invented by French-backed groups to undermine Morocco’s unity.

Years of activism in Morocco finally bore fruit in 2011, when the Moroccan constitution finally recognized Tifinagh, the Amazigh script, as an official language in Morocco.

The government also set in motion a wide range of measures to ensure a nationwide recognition of the Amazigh culture as an integral part of the Moroccan identity including incentivizing academic research on the Amazigh culture and adding Tifinagh on public signs along with Arabic and French.

Amazigh activists will carry on their fight for recognition, perhaps slowed down with the spread of COVID-19. And despite not being an official holiday, Yennar remains of great social status and cultural significance to Moroccans. Activists will continue to demand official inclusivity amid the already waning sounds of skepticism.