Heritage: Amagger n tefsut, the ritual welcome of spring
From the depths of our memory emerges like a horizon of flowers the arrival of spring as it was celebrated by our ancestors! We call it “Amagger n Tefsut” (Going to meet spring), or by Aderyis (The therapeutic plant Thapsia, with which we prepare the welcome meal).
The last day of February is an important date in the collective memory of the Amazighs, spread across several countries around the world, in North Africa from the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic but also in Western Europe. , in the Americas and also in Asia. In Algeria, this cultural and mythological survival today takes on the forms of modernity against a backdrop of ritual gestures perpetuated by tradition. From El Kala in the east to Maghnia in the west, from Cherchell on the Mediterranean coast to Tamanrasset to the south of Hoggar; Tafsut is welcomed with fervor and excitement in communion with the spirit of the Imazighen ancestors.
More than a celebration of communion with nature, it is the submission of man to nature that is celebrated. All elements of the environment are highlighted, through gestures of respect and reverence! The food, the songs, the processions, all the acts of the festival exude respect from man to nature! Even ants will share the humans' meal!
The basic values of all civilization are exalted! Work, solidarity, hospitality, union, respect for ancestrality, the culture of diversity, otherness are carried by songs, adages, poems...
The reception of the summer season is uneven depending on the region! Many gestures have been forgotten, the forms are no longer there but the spirit is there. Certain villages in Kabylia, like Ighil Ali in Soumam, Ikhettaven in Adekar, Barbacha near Babors, or At Douala and Iguersafen in upper Kabylia, have nevertheless kept the entire ritual which opens with a copious breakfast, pancakes with honey, followed by village processions towards a field chosen by the women where the ancestral gestures of welcome are performed: rolling in the grass to designate girls who have reached puberty, virile male games, shooting the target, carnivals and forest plant picking!
The welcome of spring “Amaggar n Tefsut” which marks the rebirth of nature, following this ritual established for ages, always ends with a special dinner: “Seksu s uderyis”, Couscous with Thapsia[1]
The ritual meaning of Tafsut
Like all peoples of the world, the Amazighs celebrate the return of spring as a rebirth of life, the blossoming of a new cycle! The word Tafsut, coming from the radical FSU, means to hatch, to open, to flourish,…
Spring is expected at daybreak, with the glimmer of the sun! We welcome it as the light of life, on the greenery of the fields, with the blooming of flowers, the budding of trees, the flight of birds, the birth of calves, kids and lambs! We welcome the chirping of birds, the buzzing of bees, with the looks of lovers!
The welcome lasts a full day, from dawn to the last light of day! We perform numerous rites to signify our submission to nature, we fervently transmit the knowledge and symbols inherited from our ancestors, we organize hikes, target shooting sessions, herbal medicine lessons! We touch the trees, the branches and leaves emerging from the cold of winter, we roll in the grass to take on the body, like bees, the pollen and the dew!
The timing and duration of Tafsut
Tafsut occurs on the last day of the month of Furar (February) of the North African agrarian calendar. It’s often a beautiful day! February will have passed its 28 days in five durations following the release of Yennayer's “White Days” (January). The last week is called Iazriyen (Crazy Days) marked by sporadic changes in weather, the four seasons passing in one day! The long-awaited exit from this unbearable cold, especially for the livestock, arrives with Tafsut! spring in the Amazigh language, from the radical FSU which means, Bloom! A day full of the glow of dawn to often flamboyant dusk, families repeat the ritual gestures of ancestors buried in the memory of the hills!
The territory and progress of Tafsut
From the house, an intimate space, Tafsut was celebrated in the countryside, in the orchards, between the flowering almond trees, the first floral clusters of brooms, laburnums and azeroliers! The ash trees are putting on new leaves, and all the scrub exudes the scent of intoxication. Tafsut has conquered urban space for two decades! All cultural centers; youth centers, schools, theaters are opening up to the cultural activities of associations, to the preservation of memory and heritage through celebration!
The celebration begins in the intimate space of the houses, with the special breakfast of pancakes and sweets, it continues with an outing to a field chosen for its colorful floral carpet! The human procession is often a masked carnival! “Amghar U cheqquf” or even “Bouafif”, are names that resurface from the depths of common memory in ritual remembrance that we must transmit as a duty against cultural extinction! A horse, a mule or a smaller jackal, is depicted with the mask to precede the procession and go to welcome Tafsut with the symbolism required by the rite! Women, men and children dressed in their best attire set off in a colorful procession towards the chosen field singing hymns of welcome, repeating words from the depths of the ages after a tenor-voiced corypheus:
To Lalla Tafsut, m izeǧǧigen,
A tikli n tsekkurt ger iberwaqen
Nekk mmugreɣ-kem-in s-ucebbwaḍ,
Kemm tmugerd-iyi s-izeǧǧigen.
Welcome, Princess Tafsut
With flower adornments
You who parade like a partridge
In the asphodels
I welcome you with my pancakes
Give me your beautiful flowers!
In the heart of the procession other voices intone:
“Attbut, Attbut
Mreḥba yessem a Tafsut
Ahu, Ahu,
Assa a yidem Ara neufhu »
(Good news, Good news
Welcome Spring
Yes yes
With you we will party)
Arriving on the field, the old women perform the water rite! They water the shrubs and invisible spirits with their hands, repeating the petition for rain to the God Anzar.
“Anzar, Anzar
To rebbi switt ar azar »
(O god Anzar
Waters the vegetation down to the roots)
Young women bring together all the children and throw them handfuls of candy, a symbol of sweetness for the season that is coming!
The guests form groups around the ritual meal, pancakes boiled with new “Achebbwad” milk.
Big children will be responsible for finding anthills! They will be treated to the same meal as humans! In the ancient Amazigh imagination, the ant was the agricultural advisor of Yemma-s n ddunit, the first mother in the world, our mythical progenitor!
The meal is over! The young people will improvise a match of Tiqqar, a combat sport, or even a game of Taghlalt, field hockey.
The adults will organize target shooting games with live bullets! A trophy will reward the winners of the sports games.
Poetry recitals will be recited, plays will be performed in the open air.
The day will end with the ritual roll in the grass! The need for carnal contact with nature is undoubtedly what remains instinctive, animal, in our increasingly artificial and sophisticated human condition. Many peoples engage in similar rituals; bathing in ice water among the Russians or even visiting thermal springs in countries around the Mediterranean come from this same primitive need buried deep within us
It concerns young girls who have had their first period, and are therefore suitable for marriage! Roulade was once a symbolic language to designate in the village all the young girls who could be asked to marry. This gesture which seals communion with the natural elements has lost its meaning in many regions of the country, where the meeting with Tafsut is still celebrated.
Imensi n tefsut: the ritual dinner
It is customary among the Amazighs to welcome spring with the astonishment and joy that mark all births. Also, we organize for the occasion a special dinner “Imensi N’tefsut” called “Seksu S uderyis” couscous with Thapsia, a medicinal plant known only to initiates! It’s a moment of friendly reunion. The villagers occasionally observe an immutable ritual from the depths of time: a collective meal offered to all living beings on earth! Even the ants are invited!
It’s a propitiatory meal! The “Aderyis” plant used is medicinal! Only the initiated know how to prepare it. The couscous is dry, without sauce but with hard-boiled eggs and seven steamed vegetables.
The scope of the ritual
Tafsut, the Amazigh spring, is welcomed with fervor in all the countries where the Amazighs live. This date constitutes after Yennayer, a final marker of identity for the Amazighs of the whole world whether they are in North Africa, Europe, America or elsewhere, one of the last cultural milestones that the multiple colonizations which have succeeded one another on the North Africa for more than two thousand years has not been erased from collective memory. Like all peoples of the world, the Amazighs celebrate the rebirth of nature with pomp! Today, Tafsut is a symbolic stopover, an essential vector for safeguarding and transmitting our intangible cultural heritage. What are the secrets of the transmission and resistance of this celebration to the test of time?
All gestures, all rites contribute to strengthening identity, to learning positive values shared with the rest of humanity. The protection of nature, fauna and flora, respect for ecological rhythms are supported by the festival of welcoming spring! Tafsut is undoubtedly a school for safeguarding and transmitting the values and benchmarks of our age-old identity and a lucid reading of the threats weighing on its transmission.
Tafsut again in the calendar
Tafsut is the rebirth of nature! There is an entry into Tafsut, the nature of rigor and travel activities to open life to a new cycle. The vegetables are closed at the New Year, the area covered with variegated florals, the only cover for the grains in the basement water gorge.
In the Arabic language, the print (Tafsut) is without the use of a workshop, the most illustrative, the richest due to the different weather variations, but also the reason for this particular moment of the great mutation of nature, its annual rebirth .
April 1, 2017 and the first day of training in Tafsut, the day after the day during the last day of the day, adjusting the relationship between the twilights, blazing of the day, and the sun before setting. , the sky deviating for a quarter of a day this “Lehmorega” explains to Nna Tassadit the peasant life aware of the secrets of the family history of the father of the old men of Djurdjura.
This day is due to the weather (the old capricious ones) of a Saturday afternoon marked by rapid changes in temperature. Four seasons are better during the day, with a right to rain or hail showers, clearings, intense cold, or even strong surges of heat and southerly winds.
On March 17 and 22, 2017, there will be good things, closed mouths and cupboards covering the new house and flowers. The timing that is suitable for recovery is due to the use of food in the day which corresponds to the setting of certain vegetables to the application of fruits on the trees (7 days).
Arrival also Imheznen, the seven days three, the first newspapers of April capitals by the timpani of the cicadas during which the heat sets in. Some animations are linked to the root period. It is the most irreversible nature, the turning point, a finale delayed by the days of Ahegan's career, a period which was said to make wild boars tremble (Yergagui yilef). It's hot, it's too hot to eat, but it's not going anywhere. This is a period when vegetables are stuck.
Tiftirin (Cycles) is available on September 17, 2017, during the difficult outdoor exit, in this period of exhaustion to open up to the morning sun. Pastoral services of September 24, 2020 in the days of the month so that there are many fresh fruits, some new ones which are on their way to the dry air of summer, the contact with the cold strengthens, the grass and the meadow flowers.
The warm rains of May last 14 days and are called Nissen (fruitful waters). Two weeks of showers interspersed with clearings, which the ground which is beginning to crack so badly needs.
The Izegzawen green days put an end to flowering, certain cereals form their ears, and the trees proudly display their fruits. Spring is then rounded off by the seven yellow Iwraghen days. It's the start of haymaking, the farmers mow the oats, vetch, and field beans, we begin weeding the natural meadows (Assouki) and the bocages.
Summer starts on May 30 with the seven Imellalen white days, the duration of the departure of the transhumances. Herdsmen and goatherds lead hundreds of animals to the distant pastures of Djurdjura. It’s naturally another season.
[1] Thapsia garganica or Aderyis is a perennial Mediterranean plant, a species of the Apiaceae family. It is called Bounfaa in dialectal Arabic. Endemic to Algeria, it has a striated, glabrous stem, branched in its upper part, reaching 0.90 to 1.40 m in height. The leaves are green, glabrous. The leaves at the base of the stem are large, the upper ones are reduced to a broad sheath. The root is large, blackish on the outside, white on the inside. It is a toxic plant.
By Rachid Oulebsir