Ethiopian New Year/ENKUTATASH / ADDIS AMET
The Ethiopian New Year, which is called "Enkutatash" means "gift of jewels" and it corresponds to when the Queen of Sheba returned to Axum (ancient kingdom of Ethiopia) from her expensive and enlightening trek to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon. Accordingly, the Queen's loyal subjects and court officers presented to the queen gifts of jewels like gold, diamonds, myrrh, etc.
Dates & Time
The Ethiopian Calendar follows the ancient Julian calendar which is 7-8 years behind the Gregorian calendar which the rest of the world uses. Ethiopia is probably the only country that stayed with the Julian calendar and the reason why is as follows: The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the dominant religious "institution" of Ethiopia believes that Christ was born 5,500 years after the creation of the earth by God and so we calculate our years according to his birth. This is the same in all other Oriental Orthodox Churches like the Coptic (Egyptian) Orthodox Church Ethiopia has a unique form of months having 13 months, 12 consisting of 30 days and a 13th month consisting of 5 days or 6 on a leap year. The beginning of the year is Meskerem 1 which is September 11 (September 12 on a leap year).So, now, it will be the year 2008 in Ethiopia, on September 12.The years run in a four year cycle bearing the names of the Gospels with the year of John or Yohannes being the leap year.
The clock starts at 6am western time and runs until 6pm. Therefore 8o'clock in western time would be 2o'clock Ethiopian time. Ethiopia is close to the Equator the sun rises at around 00.30 Ethiopian time and sets at around 12.45 in the evening (6.45 western equivalent) all year round. Ethiopia is 3 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).
Orthodox Enkutatash Celebrations
The largest religious celebration is in the 14th-century Kostete Yohannes church in the city of Gaynt in the Gondar Region. For 3 days the sounds of psalms, sermons, prayers and hymns can be heard as colourful processions welcome the New Year.
Enkutatash customs
On New Year's Eve, torches of dry leaves and wood bundled in the form of tall and thick sticks are also set on fire in front of houses as the young and old sing. Early in the morning everybody goes to Church wearing traditional Ethiopian clothing. After Church there is a family meal of Injera (flat bread) and Wat (stew). The girls go from house to house singing New Year songs for money and the boys sell pictures that they have drawn. In the evening families go to visit their friends and drink tella the traditional Ethiopian beer. While the elders discuss their hopes for the New Year the children go and spend the money they have earned. In more recent times it has also become usual for well-to-do city dwellers to send each other New Year greetings cards instead of the more traditional bunches of flowers.
In the month of September, after the Monsoon rains, rural areas of the country blooms with the yellow daisy, Yadey Abeba which is an indicator of the end of rainy season and New Year.
Exotic Ethiopian Adventures' staff wishes you a Great, Prosperous, Blissful, Healthy, Bright, Delightful, Energetic and Extremely Happy, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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