19 Algerian culture

The culture of Algeria encompasses literature, music, religion, cuisine and other facets of the Algerian lifestyle.

The Prix Abd-el-Tif was a French art prize that was awarded annually from 1907–1961. It was modelled on the Prix de Rome, a scholarship that enabled French artists to stay in Rome.

The cuisine of Algeria is influenced by Algeria's interactions and exchanges with other cultures and nations over the centuries. It is characterized by a wealth derived from both land and sea products. Conquests or demographic movement towards the Algerian territory were two of the main factors of exchanges between the different peoples and cultures. This cuisine is a Mediterranean and North African cuisine with Berber roots.

The architecture of Algeria encompasses a diverse history influenced by a number of internal and external forces, including the Roman Empire, Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, French colonization, and movements for Algerian independence.

In Algeria, the Islamic festival of Ashura, on 10 Muharram, is a public holiday, traditionally marked by celebration, zakat-giving, fasting, and cemetery visits depending on the region. In some areas the celebration incorporates dances, music, and masquerades.

People with disability in Algeria are protected under the law. Algeria is has adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Arab Charter on Human Rights. Algeria is working to make the country more accessible to people with disabilities. Overall, about 2.5 percent of the country has some type of disability with men having a higher rate of disability than women.

Fantasia is a traditional exhibition of horsemanship in the Maghreb performed during cultural festivals and for Maghrebi wedding celebrations. It is present in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Niger, and Mauritania.

The haik is a traditional women's garment worn in the Maghreb region. It is usually white. It consists of a rectangular fabric covering the whole body, 6 by 2.2 metres in length, rolled up then held at the waist by a belt and then brought back to the shoulders to be fixed by fibulae. It can be white or black.

The Ikelan are a caste within Tuareg society, who were at one time slaves or servile communities. While the Ikelan now speak the same language as the Tuareg nobles and share many customs, they are of assimilated Nilotic origin rather than of Berber heritage like the ethnic Tuareg. They also often live in communities separated from other castes.

Independence Day, observed annually on 5 July, is a National Holiday in Algeria commemorating colonial Algerian independence from France on 5 July 1962.

Maghrebi script refers to a loosely related family of Arabic scripts that developed in the Maghreb, al-Andalus (Iberia), and Biled as-Sudan. Maghrebi script is influenced by Kufic letters, and is traditionally written with a pointed tip, producing a line of even thickness.

In Algeria, the Day of Mawlid has been traditionally a day of celebration and joy, because Mawlid is celebrated on the twelfth day of Rabiʽ al-Awwal across the Muslim world. Algerian people, however, embrace this day with cheerful remembrance of those who have died, and it is a custom to pay visit to cemetery in order to pray for the departed ones.

Mawsim, Waada, or Raqb, is the term used in the Maghreb to designate an annual regional festival in which the Marabout or Sufi Tariqa religious celebrations usually join worshippers locally, festivities and commercial activities. These are very popular events, which people from very distant places can attend.

Sebiba is the term used in Algeria to designate a festival and the Tuareg people's dance performed on this occasion and accompanied by female drummers in the Sahara oasis of Djanet in the Tassili n'Ajjer region in southern Algeria. The dance originated among the descendants of black African slaves and is part of the celebrations for the Islamic Ashura Festival.

Tweeza, also Touiza or Tiwizi, is the term used in Algeria to designate the cooperation in a Sufi and cultural heritage in which a group from the tariqa or zawiya in a community or village gathers and cooperates in order to contribute to the achievement of charitable work, help the needy or the poor, build a house for a person or a mosque, clean a cemetery, village, or mosque, or harvest wheat fields and olive trees.

Wezeea or Thawzeeath, also known as Thamcherateth, is the term used in Algeria to designate one of the cultural customs in a Sufi society observed by the inhabitants of rural areas, especially the Berbers of the Kabylia region.

During the 1962 Algerian War of Independence, Algerian women fought as equals alongside men. They thus achieved a new sense of their own identity and a measure of acceptance from men. In the aftermath of the war, women maintained their new-found emancipation and became more involved in the development of the new state. Among the countries of the region, Algeria is regarded as a relatively liberal nation and the status of women reflects this. The constitution of Algeria guarantees equality between genders. Women can vote and run for political positions.

Yennayer is the first month of the Amazigh Year or the Amazigh year used since antiquity by the Imazighen in North Africa. Its first day corresponds to the first day of January of the Julian Calendar, which is shifted thirteen days compared to the Gregorian calendar, i.e. 14 January of every year.

Zajal is a traditional form of oral strophic poetry declaimed in a colloquial dialect. While there is little evidence of the exact origins of the zajal, the earliest recorded zajal poet was the poet Ibn Quzman of al-Andalus who lived from 1078 to 1160. It is generally conceded that the early ancestors of Levantine dialectical poetry were the Andalusian zajal and muwashshaḥah, brought to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean by Moors fleeing Spain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. An early master of Egyptian zajal was the fourteenth century zajjāl Abu ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghubārī. Zajal's origins may be ancient but it can be traced back to at least the 12th century. It is most alive in Lebanon today, and the Maghreb and particularly Morocco and Algeria, and in the Levant, especially in Lebanon, Palestine and in Jordan where professional zajal practitioners can attain high levels of recognition and popularity. Zajal is semi-improvised and semi-sung and is often performed in the format of a debate between zajjalin. It is usually accompanied by percussive musical instruments and a chorus of men who sing parts of the verse.