Berber calendar

The Berber calendar is the annual calendar used by Berber people in North Africa. This calendar is also known in Arabic under the name of فلاحي fellāḥī "agricultural" or عجمي ajamī "not Arabic". It is employed to regulate the seasonal agricultural work.

The Berber calendar is derived from the Julian calendar of ancient Roman origin.

Months

Page from a Tunisian calendar giving Gregorian (middle), Islamic (top) and Berber dates (bottom) in red. For the Berber New Year of Yennayer 1.

The Berber calendar is composed of 4 seasons with 3 months for each season. The corresponding forms in English (the Gregorian calendar uses the same month names) are noted in parenthesis:

• Tagrest : Winter.

1. Jember (December) : from December 14 to January 13 ;
2. Yennayer (January) : from January 14 to February 13;
3. Furar (February) : from February 14 to March 13.

• Tafsut : Spring.

1. Meghres (March) : from March 14 to April 13;
2. Ibrir (April) : from April 14 to May 13;
3. Mayyu (May) : from May 14 to June 13.

• Iwilen : Summer.

1. Yunyu (June) : from June 14 to July 13;
2. Yulyu : (July) : from July 14 to August 13;
3. Ghust ou Awussu : (August) : from August 14 to September 13.

• Amewan : Autumn.

1. Shtember (September) : from September 14 to October 13;
2. Tuber (October) : from October 14 to November 13;
3. Wamber (November) : from November 14 to December 13.

New Year

Yennayer 1 (commonly called "Yennayer") is celebrated as the Berber New Year. It was repopularized as a celebration by Berberist groups in 1968, and is marked even by Berbers who do not regularly follow the calendar; some Algerian Berbers still celebrate Yennayer 1 on January 12 instead of January 14.

Era

In 1968, the Paris-based Berberist group the Académie berbère (also responsible for the Neo-Tifinagh alphabet) introduced a calendar era for the Berber calendar fixed to the accession year of the 10th century BC Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq I, who they identified as the first prominent Berber in history (he is recorded as being of Libyan origin).^[1] The Académie berbère set the zero year at 950 BC (a common estimate of the accession year of Shoshenq), which allows a convenient conversion of AD years by the addition of 950—thus 2000 AD was the year 2950 in this system.

References

1. ^ Benbrahim, Malha. La fête de Yennayer: pratiques et présages. Tamazight.fr. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.

Donate to Wikimedia