Berber calendar.html



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 names of the months in the modern Berber calendar are derived from the ancient Julian calendar or from the Gregorian Calendar.

Months

Page from a Tunisian calendar giving in red Islamic (top: 26 Ramadan 1419), Gregorian (middle: 14 January 1999), and Berber dates (bottom: Berber New Year of Yennayer 1).

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

• 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 or 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 celerated on the 12th, 13th or 14th day of January by temporary rural Berbers from unknown times, which may be very old although there is no clear certitude concerning the first beginnings of this celebration.

The Berber New Year is known as "Agricultural New Year" to Maghrebins. It is therefore also celebrated by some Arabic-speaking tribes in the Maghreb. They would have maintained some Berber traditions without maintaining their Berber tongue.

Today, the celebration of the Berber new year is encouraged for cultural and politic reasons. In 2008, Libya officially celebrated the Berber new year. The Libyan Berber activists claim that El Qaddafi has manipulated the celebration of the Berber New Year.

Era

In 1968, the Paris-based Berberist group the Académie berbère (also responsible for the Neo-Tifinagh alphabet) affirmed 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.

See also

• Berbers
• Ancient Libya
• Shoshenq I

References

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

Extern links

• Number Systems and Calendars of the Berber Populations of Grand Canaray and Tenerife, by Jose Barrios Garca

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