Calendars, memory, and resistance: Unpacking the regional diversity of the Amazigh New Year

The Amazigh New Year is not just a celebration among the Amazigh people to mark the start of the new year.

Observed annually between January 12 and 14, it is a time when long-standing rituals and traditions are revived, reflecting a historical effort to rebuild collective memory and connect it to the broader written record.

This perspective is central to the work of Moroccan Amazigh researcher Brahim Akhiat. In his book The Amazigh Renaissance - As I Lived Its Birth And Development, whose English edition was published last month by Georgetown University Press, Brahim traces a shared cultural journey focused on diversity, identity and the right of people to tell their own history.

Within this story, Brahim places particular importance on the Amazigh New Year. He sees it as a way for Amazigh people to reclaim parts of their past that have long been excluded from official records, which he describes as a 'silenced archive' or a 'forgotten history'.

To understand the importance of the New Year, some researchers examine a conception of time in which human beings are closely connected to nature, society, and history.

French researcher Paul Couderc explores this idea in his book Le Calendrier. He explains that calendars are not simply systems of numbers but are shaped through relationships with celestial bodies, the sun and the moon, and through the need to organise agricultural and ritual work within society.

This perspective helps explain the origins of Yennayer, the first month of the Amazigh calendar, which is linked to a solar agricultural system inherited by North African societies through historical contact with the Roman-Julian calendar.

Other scholars argue that the Amazigh New Year should not be viewed solely through its rituals or folkloric aspects.

Linguist Mohamed Chafik, for example, sees it as clear evidence of the long-standing presence of Amazigh people in North Africa. He describes the celebration of 'Id Yennayer' as part of a social system preserved mainly in rural areas despite political changes, and as proof of cultural continuity that cannot be ignored or dismissed.

A similar argument is made by historian and poet Ali Sidqi Azaykou, who approaches the Amazigh New Year as part of a broader historical consciousness that has often been marginalised.

For Ali, the celebration raises a crucial question: "Who writes Morocco's history, and according to what logic?" In this sense, celebrating the Amazigh New Year becomes a festive translation of a symbolic system in which land, time, and everyday life intersect.

Similarly, historian John Servier, in his book Traditions and Berber Civilisation, argues that seasonal celebrations — including the New Year — are part of a symbolic system tied to agriculture and nature, which moves beyond a superficial view of the calendar as merely a 'popular feast' and reveals it as an expression of a broader civilisational temporal order.

A mosaic of celebration: Diversity across North Africa

Looking at the present day, other researchers focus on how the Amazigh calendar functions in modern society.

Amazigh culture researcher Ibrahim Arhamoun says that, in a time of rapid change, the calendar takes on a form of resistance.

"It serves as a reminder that time is not merely about tools or machines, but about life, memory and collective effort," he says.

Celebrating the Amazigh New Year, he adds, represents "reshaped time, where there is a conscious waiting for seasonal change and renewed reflection on the self and the world."

Not all researchers approach the subject in the same way. Linguist Salem Chaker offers a critical perspective that goes beyond narrow historical debates, focusing on the role of language, identity, and cultural representation in the Amazigh New Year.

In his work, Salem examines how language, culture, and rituals — including annual celebrations — developed within fragile systems under the influence of official codification.

From a contemporary cultural standpoint, the Amazigh New Year cannot be seen as a single, unified celebration but instead forms a diverse mosaic that reflects historical, social, and political differences across North African states while being closely tied to issues of identity, pluralism, and recognition.

In Morocco, for example, 14 January has been an official occasion since the Amazigh New Year was recognised in the 2011 constitution. The day holds a dual significance: it is both a popular celebration of heritage, history, and agriculture, and an official recognition of the country's cultural diversity.

A similar dynamic exists in Algeria, where regions with large Amazigh populations celebrate the occasion with community and family gatherings. These festivities preserve long-standing practices, including the recitation of seasonal tales and legends and the revival of traditional songs and dances.

Researcher Om El-Kheir Al-Aqqoun notes that Algerian celebrations of Yennayer are rooted in both deeply embedded popular traditions and contemporary historical research, yet they remain contested: supporters view them as a restoration of Amazigh identity, while critics question the connection between this calendar and the region's ancient history.

Elsewhere in the region, the celebrations are more limited.

In Libya and Tunisia, where Amazigh communities are smaller, the New Year is mainly observed in mountainous or desert areas. These celebrations are often part of efforts to promote the Amazigh language and culture and to restore their status after decades of marginalisation. While quieter and less public, they retain their symbolic core.

Taken together, these variations in celebration across Maghreb countries reflect the flexibility and plurality of Amazigh cultural heritage.

They also provide a rich field in which language, history, and symbolism intersect, allowing the Amazigh New Year to be studied as a multi-dimensional subject that attracts scholarly interest across disciplines, from history and anthropology to linguistics, social sciences, and cultural criticism.

All things considered, contemporary studies show that the Amazigh New Year carries powerful social and temporal symbolism, reflecting the relationship between people, land, society, and time, and affirming the persistence of collective memory in the face of forgetting or marginalisation.

Furthermore, diverse intellectual approaches have revealed its epistemic significance and the multiplicity of its interpretations, making the occasion an opportunity to rethink Amazigh identity as a lens for understanding the broader cultural experience of the Arab region, in all its civilisational and ethnic diversity.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition, translated by Afrah Almatwari; to read the original, click here.