Berber calendar
The Berber calendar (Berber languages: ⵜⴰⵙⵡⴰⵙⵜ ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ, romanized: taswast tamaziɣt) is the agricultural calendar traditionally used by Berbers (Amazigh, plural Imazighen). The calendar is utilized to regulate the seasonal agricultural works.
The
The current Berber calendar is a legacy of the
Differences between calendars
The agricultural Berber calendar still in use is almost certainly derived from the Julian calendar, introduced in
Months
There are standard forms for the names of the Amazigh (Berber) calendar. The table below also provides the forms used in Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia .[3]
Month | Riffian (north Morocco) | Shilha (south Morocco) | Shawiya (Algeria) | Kabyle (Algeria) | Mzab (Algeria) | Moroccan Arabic | Tunisian Arabic | Libyan Arabic |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
January | yennayer | innayr | yennar | (ye)nnayer | yennar | yanayer | yenna(ye)r | yannayer |
February | yebrayer | brayr | furar | furar | furar | febrayer | fura(ye)r | febrayer |
March | mares | marṣ | meɣres | meghres | maraṣ | mars | marsu | mars |
April | yebrir | ibrir | brir | (ye)brir | yebrir | abril | abril | ibril |
May | may | mayyu(h) | mayu | maggu | mayu | mey | mayu | mayu |
June | yunyu | yunyu(h) | yunyu | yunyu | yunyu | yunyu | yunyu | yunyu |
July | yulyuz | yulyuz | yulyu | yulyu(z) | yulyuz | yulyuz | yulyu | yulyu |
August | ɣuct | ɣuct | ɣuct | ɣuct | ɣucet | ɣuct | awussu | aɣustus |
September | cutembir (c=sh) | cutambir | ctember | ctember | ctember | cutanbir | ctamber | september |
October | ktuber | kṭubr | tuber | (k)tuber | tuber | uktuber | uktuber | uktuber |
November | nwambir | nuwambir | numbir | nu(ne)mber | unembir | nwanbir | nufember | nuvamber |
December | dujembir | dujambir | dujamber | bu- (du-)jember | uğembir | dujanbir | dejember | december |
In addition, some of the month names in Maltese are of Berber origin, specifically January (jannar), February (frar), May (mejju), and August (awwissu), with the others deriving from Italian. Berber and Italian month names are different enough that it is possible to easily determine the source language of each Maltese month name.
Seasons and Festivals
In addition to the subdivision by months, within the traditional agricultural calendar there are other partitions, by "seasons" or by "strong periods", characterized by particular festivals and celebrations.
Not all the four seasons have retained a Berber denomination: the words for spring and autumn are used almost everywhere, more sparingly the winter and, among northern Berbers, the Berber name for the autumn has been preserved only in
- Spring tafsut (Ar. er-rbiʿ) – Begins on 15 furar (28 February)
- Summer anebdu (Ar. es-sif) – Begins on 17 mayu (30 May)
- Autumn amwal / aməwan[4] ( (Ar. le-xrif) – Begins on 17 ghusht (30 August)
- Winter tagrest (Ar. esh-shita) - Begins on 16 numbír (29 November)
An interesting element is the existing opposition between two 40-day terms, one representing the allegedly coldest part of winter ("The nights", llyali) and one the hottest period of summer ("The
Llyali
The coldest period is made up by 20 "white nights" (Berber: iḍan imellalen, Arabic: al-lyali al-biḍ), from 12 to 31 dujamber (Gregorian dates: 25 December - 13 January), and 20 "black nights" (Berber: iḍan tiberkanin/isṭṭafen, Arabic al-lyali al-sud), beginning on the first day of yennayer, corresponding to the Gregorian 14 January.
Yennayer
The first day of the year is celebrated in various ways in the different parts of North Africa. A widespread tradition is a meal with particular foods, which vary from region to region (such as a couscous with seven vegetables). In some regions, it is marked by the sacrifice of an animal (usually a chicken). In January 2018, Algeria declared Yennayer a national holiday – a landmark policy considering how the Amazigh are marginalized in Northern Africa.[6]
A characteristic trait of this festivity, which often blurs with the Islamic
A curious aspect of the Yennayer celebrations concerns the date of New Year's Day. Though once this anniversary fell everywhere on 14 January,[8] because of a likely mistake introduced by some Berber cultural associations very active in recovering customs on the verge of extinction, at present in a wide part of Algeria it is common opinion that the date of "Berber New Year's Day" is 12 January and not the 14th. Previously the celebration at the 12, two days before the traditional one, it had been explicitly signaled in the city of Oran.[9]
El Azara
El Azara (
Lḥusum/Imbarken
Before the cold ends completely and spring begins fully, there is a period of the year that is very feared. It consists of ten days straddling the months of furar and mars (the last five of the former and the first five of the latter), and it is characterised by strong winds. It is said that, during this term, one should suspend many activities (agricultural and artisan), should not marry nor go out during the night, leaving instead full scope to mysterious powers, which in that period are particularly active and celebrate their weddings. Due to a linguistic taboo, in Djerba these creatures are called imbarken, i.e. "the blessed ones", whence this period takes its name.
Jamrat el Ma (
Jamrat el Trab (
Ssmaym
Like the strong winter cold, the
Iweǧǧiben
Another important period for the agricultural calendar is that of the
Influences from the Islamic calendar
Following centuries-long contacts with the Arab-Islamic culture, the celebrations linked to the Julian calendar have been sometimes integrated into the Islamic calendar, leading to the suppression of some traditional holidays or to the creation of duplicates.
The most evident example are the celebrations for the new year, which in many cases have been transferred to the first Islamic month, i.e.
Arabic and Berber names of the Islamic months
Arabic name | Berber name | |
---|---|---|
1 | Muḥàrram | babiyannu (Ouargla) ʿashura' (Djerba) |
2 | Sàfar | u deffer ʿashura' |
3 | Rabiʿ al-awwal
|
elmilud |
4 | Rabiʿ al-thani
|
u deffer elmilud |
5 | Jumada al-awwal
|
melghes (Djerba) |
6 | Jumada al-thani
|
asgenfu n twessarin "the rest (the waiting) of the old women" (Ouargla) sh-shaher n Fadma (Djerba) |
7 | Rajab | twessarin "the old women" |
8 | shaʿaban
|
asgenfu n remdan "the rest (the waiting) of Ramadan" (Ouargla) |
9 | Ramadan | sh-shaher n uzum "the month of the fasting" (Djerba) |
10 | Shawwal | tfaska tameshkunt "the little holiday" (Djerba) |
11 | dhu al-qaʿida
|
u jar-asneth "that between the two (holidays)" (Djerba) |
12 | Dhu al-Hijjah
|
tfaska tameqqart "the big holiday" (Djerba) |
Older calendars
Name | Meaning |
---|---|
tayyuret tezwaret | The first small moon |
tayyuret teggwerat | The last small moon |
yardut | ? |
sinwa | ? |
tasra tezwaret | The first herd |
tasra teggwerat | The last herd |
awdayeɣet yezwaren | The first antelope babies |
awdayeɣet yeggweran | The last antelope babies |
awzimet yezwaren | The first gazelle babies |
awzimet yeggweran | The last gazelle babies |
ayssi / aysi | ? |
nim | ? |
Not much is known about the division of time among the ancient Berbers. Some elements of a pre-Islamic, and almost certainly a pre-Roman calendar, emerge from some medieval writings, analyzed by Nico van den Boogert. Some correspondences with the traditional Tuareg calendar suggest that in antiquity there existed, with some degree of diffusion, a Berber time computation, organized on native bases.
There are not enough elements to reconstruct this calendar fully, but known characteristics include many month names' appearing in couples (in the Tuareg world, even in triplets), which suggests a time division different from the present one, made up of months of about 30 days.
Some further information, although difficult to specify and correlate with the situation in the rest of North Africa, may be deduced from what is known about time computation among the Guanches of the Canary Islands. According to a 17th-century manuscript by Tomás Marín de Cubas, they
computed their year, called Acano, by
The same manuscript states (although somewhat obscurely) that graphical-pictorical records of such calendarial events (tara) were made on different supports, and on this basis some modern scholars identified alleged descriptions of astronomical events connected to annual cycles in a series of geometric paintings in some caves of Gran Canaria island, but the results of these studies are for now highly speculative.[14][15]
The name of only one month is known in the native language, handed down as Beñesmet. It seems it was the second month of the year, corresponding to August. Such a name, in case it was made up by something like *wen "that of" + (e)smet (or (e)zmet?), may correspond, in the list of medieval Berber month names, with the ninth and tenth months, awzimet (properly aw "baby of" + zimet "gazelle"). But data are too scarce for this hypothesis to be deepened.[12]
Computation of the years
The traditional Berber calendar was not linked to an era with respect to which years were calculated. Where traditional ways to compute the years have been preserved (Tuareg civilization), years are not expressed with numbers but each of them has a name characterizing it.
Starting from the 1960s, however, on the initiative of the Académie Berbère of Paris, some Berbers have begun computing the years starting from 950 BC, the approximate date of the rising into power of the first Libyan Pharaoh in Egypt, Shoshenq I, whom they identified as the first prominent Berber in history (he is recorded as being of Libyan origin).[16] For example, the Gregorian year 2024 corresponds to the 2974th year of the Berber calendar.
This innovation has been adopted with conviction by many supporters of the Berber culture and is now a part of the cultural heritage of this people, fully integrated in the system of traditional customs related the North-African calendar.[citation needed]
References
- )
- ^ Idris, 1954
- ^ "Les origines du calendrier amazigh". Les Matins d'Algérie.
- Jebel Nafusa (Jadu); aməwan is the corresponding word in tuareg. Cp. V. Brugnatelli, "Notes d’onomastique jerbienne et mozabite", in K. Naït-Zerrad, R. Voßen, D. Ibriszimow (éd.), Nouvelles études berbères. Le verbe et autres articles. Actes du "2. Bayreuth-Frankfurter Kolloquium zur Berberologie 2002", Köln, R. Köppe Verlag, 2004, pp. 29-39, in particular p. 33.
- ^ On this topic, see e.g. chapter "Llyali et Ssmaym" in Genevois (1975, pp. 21-22)
- ^ "Happy 2968! Berber New Year becomes holiday in Algeria". The National. 12 January 2018.
- ^ The etymology proposed for bu-ini of Aures from Masqueray (1886: 164), was welcomed and extended to other similar terms related to the start of the year festivities by several authors, including Doutté (1909: 550), Laoust (1920: 195), Delheure (1988: 156). Drouin (2000: 115) defines these etymological research as "unconvincing".
- ^ In fact, as remarked by Genevois (1975: 11), "the agricultural calendar (ancient Julian calendar) has therefore at present a 13-day delay".
- ^ "In Oran the Ennayer parties are made on 11 and 12 January of the Gregorian calendar, that is two days before the common agricultural calendar ..." Mohamed Benhadji Serradj, Fêtes d'Ennâyer aux Beni snus (tlemcénien folklore) in IBLA, vol. 1950, pp. 247-258.
- ^ al Haj Ali, Naji. "ماذا تعني هذه المصطلحات الشعبية؟: "العزارة"... "قرة العنز"... و"الليالي"!!". Turess. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ^ "Aujourd'hui marque la descente de la braise de terre " جمرة التراب ", qu'est ce que c'est ?". WEPOST Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-2-7475-2706-4.
- ISBN 978-84-8103-407-3.
- ISBN 978-973-651-033-5.
- ISBN 978-84-605-6954-1.
- ^ Benbrahim, Malha. "La fête de Yennayer: pratiques et présages" (in French). Tamazight.fr. Retrieved 4 September 2007.
Bibliography
- "Il calendario degli uomini liberi", Africa, Epicentro (Ferrara), year V, no. 16 (January/February 2000), pp. 30–33 (in attachment: a Berber calendar for 2000)
- Achab, Ramdane (1996). La néologie lexicale berbère: 1945-1995. M.S. — Ussun amazigh (in French). Vol. 9. Paris - Louvain: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-9068318104.
- Saïd Bouterfa, Yannayer - Taburt u swgas, ou le symbole de Janus, Alger, El-Musk, 2002 – ISBN 9961-928-04-0
- Gioia Chiauzzi, Cicli calendariali nel Magreb, 2 vols., Naples (Istituto Universitario Orientale), 1988
- Jeannine Drouin, "Calendriers berbères", in: S. Chaker & A. Zaborski (eds.), Études berbères et chamito-sémitiques. Mélanges offerts à K.-G. Prasse, Paris-Louvain, Peeters, 2000, ISBN 90-429-0826-2, pp. 113–128
- Henri Genevois, Le calendrier agraire et sa composition, "Le Fichier Périodique" no. 125, 1975
- Henri Genevois, Le rituel agraire, "Le Fichier Périodique" 127, 1975, pp. 1–48
- Mohand Akli Haddadou, Almanach berbère - assegwes Imazighen, Algiers (Editions INAS) 2002 – ISBN 9961-762-05-3
- H. R. Idris, "Fêtes chrétiennes célébrées en Ifrîqiya à l'époque ziride", in Revue Africaine 98 (1954), pp. 261–276
- Emile Laoust, Mots et choses berbères, Paris 1920
- Umberto Paradisi, "I tre giorni di Awussu a Zuara (Tripolitania)", AION n.s. 14 (1964), pp. 415–9
- Serra, Luigi (1990). "Awussu". Encyclopédie Berbère (in French). Vol. 8. Aix-en-Provence: Editions Edisud. pp. 1198–1200. ISBN 9782857444619.
- Jean Servier, Les portes de l'Année. Rites et symboles. L'Algérie dans la tradition méditerranéenne, Paris, R. Laffont, 1962 (new edition: Monaco, Le Rocher, 1985 ISBN 2268003698)
- Nouh-Mefnoune, Ahmed; Abdessalam, Brahim (2011). Dictionnaire mozabite-français (in French)
External links
- An article about traditional customs in Berber New Year's Day (in French)
- A page with a "Berber zodiac", a modern creation based upon traditional elements (in French)
- An essays on the calendars used by Guanches of Canaries (pdf) (in Spanish)
- Number Systems and Calendars of the Berber Populations of Grand Canaray and Tenerife, by Jose Barrios Garca (in English)