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Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en English et Malagasy.
The traditional Malagasy New Year – Alahamady Be – is a reminder that every human society has always shared the common values of life, light, food, music, celebration and community.
Every society is unique in some way, but we share an enormous amount of our history, culture, heritage and values across all borders and times.
Though Madagascar now marks New Year’s Day on 1st January along with much of the rest of the world, its historical New Year Alahamady Be (also the first day of the month Alahamady) fell on or near the (in Gregorian calendar terms) March full moon.
This year (2025), Alahamady Be is the Gregorian Sunday 30 March.
Though its celebration is by no means widespread any longer, some Malagasy people, as they re-engage with their country’s pre-colonial traditions, do mark it.
Celebrations include the fandroana – a ‘sacred bath’ – the lighting of the afo tsy maty, or ‘eternal fire’, which the whole community attends and which must remain lit until dawn and ‘arendrina’ (lanterns) symbolising the continuity of life and its light in the darkness, and which make the evening and night a festival of light.
Late in the evening, people engage in andro tsy maty in which the community gathers to watch over and guard the fire.
Celebrants then practice santatra, replacing their mats with new ones, and wearing new clothes, and safo-rano misandratr’ando, in which families bless one another with clean water.
Meals are prepared and eaten together to symbolise sharing, unity, and prosperity, and include tatao, made of rice drizzled with milk and honey, and which participants place on their heads after ‘safo rano misandratr’ando’ to protect against evil spells, as well as hanim-pitoloha, the ‘seven royal dishes’, which symbolises abundance and perfection, and nofon-kena mitam-pihavanana, in which zebu meat is shared to strengthen social bonds.
Music, dance and story-telling (including vakodrazana and hira gasy) are also a strong part of the event.
While Madagascar has embraced and is a vibrant part of the wider world, Alahamady Be is a reminder of the traditions, tales and practices we all once had, and that even as each people is unique, our shared values – life, light, food, music, celebration and community – are common parts of the human race’s shared history, culture and heritage.
