Moroccan Lawmakers Push for Amazigh New Year as National Holiday

In support of the many Amazigh associations demanding the recognition of the Amazigh New Year as a national public holiday, these deputies have sent a written question to the government asking them to make January 13 of each year a public, non-working and paid holiday.

This request must be distinguished from any political and ideological instrument, the parliamentarians said, as it falls within the framework of the protection of the Amazigh cultural heritage and the enhancement of traditions that are deeply rooted in history, reports Al Ahdath Al Maghribia.

For MP Khadija Arouhal, this claim is legitimate since the constitution recognizes Amazighness as a component of national identity, specifying that this recognition was followed by the adoption of the organic law setting the stages of the implementation of the official character of Amazighness and the means to integrate it into the field of education and in public life.

The Amazigh New Year or Yennayer has become a popular celebration full of symbolic dimensions that associations celebrate in Morocco and abroad. It has therefore become imperative that it be decreed as a public holiday, as is the custom in the Gregorian and Hijri calendars, explains the newspaper.