Yennayer is a family festival. Houses are cleaned, fresh bread is baked, and a big special meal is shared. The most traditional Yennayer dish is a couscous topped with seven different vegetables - one for each day of the week. Seven is seen as a lucky number that brings a good harvest for the new year.
Children play a big part. In some Amazigh communities, on the evening of Yennayer, a child is given a haircut for the first time - a way of marking their growing up. Other families let children dig into a special bowl of nuts, dried figs, sweets and grains to grab a handful with both hands - the more you grab, the more good fortune you'll have.
Yennayer is especially celebrated in the Amazigh-speaking regions of Algeria - Kabylia, the Aurès Mountains, and the M'zab Valley. Children learn songs in Tamazight, the Amazigh language. In 2018, Yennayer became an official public holiday across all of Algeria.
Yennayer is also a chance to celebrate Amazigh culture more widely - colourful traditional clothes, jewellery decorated with silver coins, hand-woven rugs and old stories told by grandparents around the table. It is a moment for children to feel proud of being part of one of the oldest cultures in the world.