Customs and traditions of celebrating the Amazigh New Year in the Middle Atlas
The closer the Amazigh New Year approaches, the inhabitants of the Middle Atlas prepare to celebrate this occasion as a social event that carries great symbolic and historical connotations on several levels, including what is cultural, artistic and anthropological.
However, what distinguishes the Amazigh year “Enayer Metabolism” is the customs and traditions associated with it, which differ from one region to another, which gives it symbolic dimensions expressed by the inhabitants of the Atlas through the practice of celebration rituals whose roots are rooted in the Amazigh culture, which is an intangible national wealth.
The Amazigh New Year, which falls on the night of January 13 of the calendar year, is celebrated in all countries of North Africa. It is known under the name “Yannayer”, the first month of the year, and it is also called “Askas”, meaning New Year’s Eve, or “Askas”, the day that separates two periods of time.
Al-Hussein Akda, a researcher in history and heritage, confirmed that the inhabitants of the Khenifra region, which forms part of the Middle Atlas, have always practiced the Bedouin life during the summer and winter, and that the celebration of the New Year coincides with the presence of most of the inhabitants of the plains.
He said that this event is celebrated collectively within the framework of the tribe under the supervision of the tribe leader and his assistants, explaining that the celebration of the New Year is represented in preparing traditional dishes and holding ceremonial rituals according to the customs and traditions inherited by the successors from the ancestors and varied in the diversity of regions.
Akda added that this celebration takes place within the tribe, and it is an occasion for families to meet, pointing out that the leader of the tribe is the one who determines the family that hosts the dinner for the celebration, which consists of local dishes such as couscous.
And he highlighted that the night of celebrating the Amazigh New Year is accompanied by rituals that carry symbols and connotations that express optimism and happiness, indicating that with the rising of the sun, the grains of couscous are dispersed in the fields, pastures, barns and warehouses, hoping that the New Year will be a year of wealth and abundance.
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