Today, I want to wish a happy Yennayer (or Yennair) to Mallorca’s Berber community. This year, January 13th marks the first day of the Amazigh (the word for Berber) calendar, the first month being called Yennayer. A Happy New Year then.

We don’t usually know Berber people as such because we tend to identify them as Moroccans or Arabs when in fact they are neither. Berber are indigenous Peoples of the Maghreb in North Africa and may happen to be nationals of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali or Niger.

There are quite a number of Moroccans living in Felanitx where I reside. I used to think of them as Moroccans until I inquired a bit further (I am a nosy person, you know) and found out that a large proportion of Felanitx Moroccans are in fact of Berber descent. I suspect that most of them will feel in a festive mood today, this being the beginning of Amazigh Year 2962 in their culture.

The photo (top) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of mca-hotels.com. The image (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of amazic-catala.blogspot.com.

Thank you very much,

molts gràcies, and

sahit.