Yennayer: North Africa's 3,000-year-old new year's celebration

Yennayer: North Africa's 3,000-year-old new year's celebration Jeff Koehler Couscous is a common part of the Yennayer celebration This year will mark the first time that Morocco recognises the Amazigh new year as an official holiday, enjoyed with festive foods like couscous. Jeff Koehler This traditional Berber village sits in the Ouirgane Valley of the High Atlas mountains In Algeria, the dish most widely associated with the holiday is couscous, explained Yasmina Sellam, a trained agronomist, judge on Algeria's Master Chef and author of the award-winning book Mémoire Culinaire de l'Algérie. "In popular culture across Algeria, it's imperative that the Yenneyer meal contains these ingredients for the good omen of a prosperous year ahead for the harvests," Sellam explained. For Hanane Abdelli-Tancrede, author of the recently released cookbook Goûts d'Algérie and chef and founder of Mama Nissa, a stylish and popular restaurant serving "fast-good" Algerian specialties in Paris's second arrondissement, the dish is rechta, made with fresh noodles, chicken, chickpeas and turnips, and drizzled with a chicken-based "white" broth flavoured with cinnamon.