Religious & festival
Yennayer: The Amazigh New Year and Its Food
While the Islamic year follows the moon and the Gregorian new year passes quietly, many Moroccans mark a third new year: Yennayer, the Amazigh (Berber) agrarian new year, celebrated in mid-January. Rooted in the farming calendar rather than religion, it is a festival of the land and the hearth, and its foods are chosen for what they symbolise — abundance, fertility and a good harvest to come.
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- Religious & festival
- Updated
- 19 July 2026
At a glance
- Yennayer is the Amazigh new year, tied to the farming calendar and celebrated around 12-14 January.
- The festival is agrarian and cultural, marking the depth of winter and hope for the harvest.
- Foods are symbolic — abundance, fullness and good fortune for the year ahead.
- A chicken dish hides a bone or pit whose finder is promised luck.
A new year rooted in the land
Yennayer marks the first day of the Amazigh agricultural year, a calendar that has structured planting and harvest in North Africa for millennia. Falling in the depth of winter, it is both a pause in the farming year and a hopeful looking-forward, and in Amazigh communities across the Atlas, the Rif and the Souss it is celebrated with family feasts and old customs.
In recent years Yennayer has been given growing official recognition in Morocco, and the festival has become a wider celebration of Amazigh heritage, language and food.
The symbolic feast
Yennayer food is chosen to invoke plenty. The centrepiece is often a generous couscous crowned with seven vegetables, its abundance a wish for a bountiful year. In many households a chicken is cooked, and a bone or a date pit is hidden in the dish — whoever finds it is promised good luck and prosperity in the coming year.
- Seven-vegetable couscous: a heaped, generous plate symbolising abundance.
- Tagoula / orkimen: hearty porridges and stews of barley, wheat or mixed pulses.
- Chicken with the lucky bone: the finder is blessed with fortune for the year.
- Dried fruit and nuts: dates, walnuts and almonds for sweetness and plenty.
Regional dishes and customs
The exact dishes vary by region. In some areas the festival food is tagoula, a thick porridge of barley or corn served with a well of argan or olive oil and honey. In others it is orkimen, a hearty stew of dried beans, wheat and pulses — foods that fill the belly against the winter cold and use the stores gathered in autumn. Whatever the dish, generosity is the rule, and tables are laid heavily.
For the wider Amazigh mountain kitchen, see argan season and amlou, and for the deep-winter table generally, what to eat in Morocco in winter.
Frequently asked questions
What is Yennayer?
Yennayer is the Amazigh (Berber) new year, marking the first day of the traditional North African agricultural calendar. Celebrated in mid-January, around 12-14 January, it is a cultural and agrarian festival rather than a religious one, tied to the farming year and celebrated with a symbolic family feast.
What food is eaten at Yennayer?
The classic dish is a generous seven-vegetable couscous, its abundance symbolising a prosperous year. Hearty barley or corn porridges (tagoula) and dried-bean and wheat stews (orkimen) are common, along with a chicken dish that hides a lucky bone or date pit for one guest to find.
Why is a bone hidden in the Yennayer chicken?
It is a fortune-telling custom: a bone or a date pit is concealed in the communal chicken dish, and whoever finds it on their plate is promised luck, prosperity or a good harvest in the coming year. Similar lucky-token customs appear in agrarian new-year feasts across many cultures.
Is Yennayer a religious holiday?
No. Yennayer is a cultural and agricultural festival rooted in the Amazigh farming calendar, distinct from the Islamic religious festivals. It celebrates heritage, the land and the turning of the agrarian year, and has gained growing official recognition in Morocco as a marker of Amazigh identity.