Yennayer is the New Yr’s Day of the agrarian calendar used since antiquity by the Berbers all through North Africa. They have a good time it from January 12 to 14 of every 12 months, as the beginning of the Julian calendar. It’s shifted of 13 days in comparison with the Gregorian calendar, and begins on the 14th of every 12 months. Most likely because of an error of the primary cultural associations that advocated the return to this conventional vacation threatened with extinction, the opinion that the standard date is January 12 is widespread, though the precise date is January 14.
In some areas, They precede Yennayer with IMENSI N YENNAYER “Yennayer’s dinner” on the eve of the Amazigh New Yr. The contributors meet and wait, by completely different occasions, for the approaching of the brand new 12 months. In France, the stock of intangible cultural heritage registered Yennayer since 2020.
Yennayer corresponds to the primary day of the agrarian calendar utilized by the Berbers for a number of centuries. Yennayer additionally refers back to the starting of the Julian calendar, adopted in historical Rome.
The Berber Academy primarily based its resolution on the truth that the Berbers used to have a good time Yennayer yearly, to declare it because the “Amazigh New Yr”. It’s Ammar Negadi who put ahead a Berber calendar, in 1980, primarily based on a big occasion within the historical past of the Amazigh folks, an indeniable historic reality to make it the zero level of the calendar. His alternative fell on the 12 months 950 B.C. which corresponds to the date when the Berber king Sheshonq I used to be enthroned Pharaoh of Egypt and based the XXIInd dynasty which dominated Egypt till the 12 months 715 B.C. This Berber king had succeeded in unifying Egypt after which invaded the Kingdom of Israel. It’s stated that he seized the treasures of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem in 926 BC. The Bible talked about King Sheshonq beneath the identify of Sesaq and Shishaq in historical Hebrew.
Yennayer consists of two Berber phrases: yan, which means “the primary”, and ayyur which means “month”. “yennayer” the primary month, others consider that Yennayer is the Berber pronunciation of January.
A preferred Berber etymology could be “the phrases of the moon” or “the phrase of the sky”.
