THE NATION
While the rest of the world has progressed to 2024, Ethiopia remains in 2016 because of its distinct calendar system.
The country will celebrate the year 2017 on September 11, 2024, based on the Gregorian calendar.
Ethiopia follows the Ge’ez calendar, which is based on the ancient Coptic calendar.
The calendar consists of 13 months: 12 months with 30 days each and Pagumđ, an intercalary month with five or six days depending on whether it is a leap year.
Because of this arrangement, the Ethiopian year is seven or eight years behind the widely used Gregorian calendar.
The Ethiopian calendar is solar, based on the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, also known as a tropical or solar year.
It shares the same astronomical calculations as the Gregorian calendar and its predecessor, the Julian calendar.
A year in the Ethiopian calendar consists of 13 months, with 12 months each having 30 days. The final month has 5 days in a common year and 6 days in a leap year.
Up till date, Ethiopia uses its ancient calendar, which hardly creates any inconvenience for travellers because of the calendar difference. However, most Ethiopians these days are now aware of the Gregorian calendar, and some even use both calendars interchangeably.
The Ethiopian calendar isn’t the only alternative calendar system. The ancient Egyptian calendar, for instance, places the year 2024 as 6266. Saudi Arabia has used the Hijri calendar for official dealings but recently incorporated the Gregorian calendar, while Israel follows the Hebrew calendar.
Ethiopia also uses a unique 12-hour clock system that runs from dawn to dusk, beginning at 1 a.m. instead of midnight. This means what most people outside Ethiopia would consider 7 a.m. is 1 a.m. in Ethiopian time.
The Ethiopian calendar, based on calculations from the Coptic Church, starts in 7 BC, unlike the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, which is based on calculations by Dionysius Exiguus. This difference results in the Ethiopian calendar being several years behind the Gregorian calendar.
Although the majority of Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25, Ethiopians, like many other Orthodox Christian churches worldwide, celebrate Christmas on January 7.
Also, public holidays, official documents, and school years follow the Ethiopian calendar, making Ethiopians’ interactions with the outside world uniquely different from other cultures.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN THE NATION
