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 yr, 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 yr. Most likely on account 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 totally different occasions, for the approaching of the brand new yr. 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 historic Rome.
The Berber Academy based mostly its determination 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, based mostly on a major occasion within the historical past of the Amazigh individuals, an indeniable historic reality to make it the zero level of the calendar. His selection fell on the yr 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 yr 715 B.C. This Berber king had succeeded in unifying Egypt after which invaded the Kingdom of Israel. It’s mentioned that he seized the treasures of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem in 926 BC. The Bible talked about King Sheshonq below the identify of Sesaq and Shishaq in historic Hebrew.
Yennayer consists of two Berber phrases: yan, that means “the primary”, and ayyur that means “month”. “yennayer” the primary month, others consider that Yennayer is the Berber pronunciation of January.
A well-liked Berber etymology could be “the phrases of the moon” or “the phrase of the sky”.
