Mohamed VI aprueba el reconocimiento del Año Nuevo Amazigh como fiesta nacional oficial en Marruecos

The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has approved the conversion of the Amazigh New Year celebration into an official holiday integrated into the Moroccan bank holidays calendar.  

In this way, the Amazigh New Year (Yennayer), which is celebrated every 13 January, is added to the list of Moroccan national holidays as a "national and paid" holiday, showing that the North African country fully values this part of its national culture. Thus, it is added to the list just like the New Year of the Hegira in the 1st Muharram and the New Year holiday of the Gregorian calendar. 

In an official communiqué from the Moroccan Royal Court, it was announced that King Mohammed VI approved the celebration of the Amazigh New Year as an official bank holidays and instructed the head of government, Aziz Akhannouch, to take all the necessary measures to implement this inclusion.  

This decision manifests the King's "commitment to the Berber language, a fundamental part of Morocco's authentic identity and an asset shared by all Moroccans", according to the official note.  

This historic decision is an important step towards national unity and the promotion of cultural diversity in the North African country. This measure demonstrates the national interest in promoting the Amazigh language and culture, as the main components of Moroccan identity, rich in its many variants recognised by the 2011 Constitution. In this way, it represents the "constitutional consecration of Amazigh as an official language of the country, alongside Arabic", as highlighted by the Moroccan news agency MAP. 

The Amazigh New Year, also known as 'Yennayer', marks the beginning of the agricultural calendar and is celebrated by the Amazigh of the Moroccan country, who represent around 40% of the population.

This was not an official paid bank holidays, i.e. with paid time off for workers. Many activists called for the recognition of official bank holidays status as a significant step towards recognising and promoting the country's cultural diversity. As many as 45 Amazigh NGOs at home and abroad petitioned King Mohammed VI to declare the Amazigh New Year an official holiday.  

Before the Amazigh New Year was recognised as a bank holiday, the Moroccan Amazigh community celebrated it in different cities across the country, while several state administrations and some diplomatic missions based in Morocco sent messages of congratulations when the date arrived.  

?Communiqué du Cabinet Royal : SM le Roi Mohammed VI, que Dieu L'assiste, a décidé d’instaurer le Jour de l’an amazighe, jour férié national officiel payé, à l’instar du premier Moharram de l’année de l’Hégire et du Jour de l’an du calendrier grégorien.
?https://t.co/05sOBZKDeV pic.twitter.com/W2lQdnG0VJ

— Maroc Diplomatie ?? (@MarocDiplomatie) May 3, 2023

Amazigh, which has its own alphabet, 'Tifinagh', is a cultural feature as a language spoken by millions of people from North Africa and the Sahel and, according to official estimates, is the mother tongue of a third of the Moroccan population.

It is estimated that there are between 30 and 60 million Berber speakers in North Africa, with a particular concentration in Morocco and Algeria. The best known communities in this region are the Rifians (Rif region) in Morocco and the Kabyle (Kabylia region) in Algeria.