page_title: Berber calendar
section_title: Llyali
hierarchical_section_title: Berber calendar / Seasons and Festivals / Llyali
caption_attribution_description: a Tunisian calendar page: Yennayer 1st = January, 14th
context_page_description: The Berber calendar is the agricultural calendar traditionally used by Berbers. It is also known as the fellaḥi. The calendar is utilized to regulate the seasonal agricultural works.
  The Islamic calendar, a lunar calendar, is not suited for agriculture because it does not relate to seasonal cycles. In other parts of the Islamic world either Iranian solar calendars, the Coptic calendar, the Rumi calendar, or other calendars based on the Julian calendar, were used before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar.
  The current Berber calendar is a legacy of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis and the Roman province of Africa, as it is a surviving form of the Julian calendar. The latter calendar was used in Europe before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, with month names derived from Latin. Berber populations previously used various indigenous calendars, such as that of the Guanche autochthones of the Canary Islands. However, relatively little is known of these ancient calendrical systems.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: A page from a Tunisian calendar, showing the correspondence of 1 Yennayer ʿajmi (in red on bottom) with 14 January of the Gregorian calendar. The writing on the bottom signals that it is ʿajmi New Year's Day and that al-lyali al-sud ("the black nights") are beginning.
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