Ethiopians look forward to the start of the new year, celebrating in many homes despite the effects of rising prices and the escalating war and famine in the north. Learn more about the unique Ethiopian calendar and their culture.
1) A year lasts 13 months
Not only that – the Ethiopian calendar is also seven years and eight months behind the Western calendar, making Saturday the start of 2014.
This is because they calculate Jesus Christ’s birth year differently. When Catholicism changed its calculation in 500 AD, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church did not.
Hence, the new year falls on 11 September in the western calendar, or 12 September in the spring, in early spring.
Unlike children growing up elsewhere, Ethiopian youths do not need to learn praise to remember how many days each month they remember.
In Ethiopia it is relatively simple: every 12 months has 30 days and 13 – the last of the year – lasts five or six days, depending on the leap year.
The time is also calculated differently – the day will be divided into two 12-hour periods from 06:00, which would result in daylight and midnight at Ethiopian time.
So if someone makes an appointment to meet you in Addis Ababa at 10 a.m. for a cup of coffee – Ethiopia is after the birth of arabica beans – don’t be surprised if they just get up at 16:00.
2) It is the only African country that has never had a colonial power
Italy attempted to take over Ethiopia, or Abyssinia as it is commonly known, in 1895, when European powers were recording the African continent among them – but they were defeated in a humiliating defeat.
Italy was able to seize neighboring Eritrea when the Italian company bought the Red Sea port of Assab. The turmoil following the 1889 death of the Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV allowed Italy to occupy a high point on the coast.
But a few years later when Italy wanted to continue on to Ethiopia, it was defeated at the Battle of Adwa. Four Italian armies were defeated just hours later on March 1, 1896 by the Ethiopians serving in Emperor Menelik II.
Italy has been forced to sign an agreement on Ethiopia’s independence – even decades after foreign leader Benito Mussolini violated it, staying in the country for five years.
One of Menelik’s successors, Emperor Haile Selassie, used his victory in Italy to force the African Unity (OAU), now the African Union, with its Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
“Our freedom is meaningless as long as all Africans are free,” he said. Selassie did so during the formation of the OAU in 1963, a time when much of the continent was still under the control of European powers.
He called on anti-colonial leaders to train – including Nelson Mandela of South Africa – who was issued with an Ethiopian passport, which allowed him to travel around Africa in 1962.
Mandela later wrote about the special place that Ethiopia had reserved for him before he left for this trip: “I realized that if I visited my culture, I would find the roots of what made me an African.”
3) Rastafarians worship Emperor Haile Selassie
This is based on an idea in 1920 from the tyrannical black Jamaican leader Marcus Garvey, who was behind the Back to Africa faction: “Look at Africa, where the black king is given a crown, because the day of redemption is near.”
Ten years later, 38-year-old Ras Tafari (or Chief Tafari) received the crown Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, many in Jamaica saw the fulfillment of this prophecy, and the Rastafari movement was born.
Reggae legend Bob Marley helped spread the message of the Rasta – as well as the words of his song, War, quoting the emperor at the UN General Assembly in 1963 calling for world peace: “Until the wisdom that makes one race successful and another low is “In the end, and for this, until now, Africa will not know peace.”
Marley’s Exodus song, dubbed Time magazine as a 20th Century disc, reflects Rastafari’s desire to return to Africa, where millions of people were forced to flee during the transatlantic slave trade.
To this day a small group of Rastas live in the Ethiopian town of Shashamene, 225km (150 miles) south of Addis Ababa, a distance that Selassie provided to blacks from the West who helped him fight Mussolini.
Selassie, an Orthodox Christian, may not be a Rastafarian believer, insists that she is not immortal, but the Rastafarians still reverence her as the Lion of Judah.
This refers to the Selassie lineage, which many Rastafarians and Ethiopians believe can be traced back to King Solomon of the Bible.
4) Home of the Ark of the Covenant
For many Ethiopians, the white box containing the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments that the Bible says was given to Moses by God is not lost – Indiana Jones of Hollywood I want to go to Aksum.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church says the coffin is regularly monitored in Aksum’s Our Lady Mary of Zion Church, where no one is allowed to see it.
Tradition has it that the church has this tremendous reputation because of the Queen of Sheba, whose existence may be challenged by historians, but not by the Ethiopians.
It is believed that he traveled from Aksum to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon to learn more about his famous philosophy around 950 BC.
The story of his journey and seduction by Solomon is told in detail in the Kebra Nagast epic (The Glory of Kings) – an Ethiopian literary work written in the Ge’ez language in the 14th century.
It describes how Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, gave birth to a son – Menelik (meaning Wise Son) – and a few years later went to Jerusalem to meet her father.
Solomon wanted to remain in power after his death, but he agreed that the young man wanted to return home, and bring him back with another group of Israelites – one of them stole the ark, and removed the former and deceit.
When Menelik realized that he had agreed to keep it, he believed it was God’s will for Ethiopia – and for Orthodox Christians to remain holy and eager to protect their lives.
This came to light last year when, during a dispute in the northern Ethiopian province of Tigray, Eritrean troops allegedly tried to seize Mary Mary of Zion Church after a horrific massacre.
A government official in the city told the BBC that young people rushed to the scene to protect the ship: “All the men and women were beaten. They fired shots and killed others, but we are happy because we did not protect our property.”
5) The home of the first Muslims outside of Arabia
“If you go to Abyssinia, you will find a king who will not tolerate injustice,” the Prophet Muhammad told his followers when he first encountered persecution in 7th Century Mecca, in modern-day Saudi Arabia.
This was a time when the prophet had just begun his sermons, which became so popular that they regarded him as a threat to the city’s non-Muslim rulers.
Following his advice, a small group set out for the Kingdom of Aksum, which affected many parts of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, where they were welcomed and allowed to practice their religion by the Christian king Armah – whose royal name at Ge ‘ez was Negus, or Negashi in Arabic.
The village of Negash, now Tigray, is a haven for refugees and is considered to be the oldest mosque in Africa. Last year, the al-Negashi mosque was located protected in battle at Tigray.
Local Muslims believe 15 of the prophet’s disciples were also buried in Negash.
In Islamic history the migration to Aksum was known as the first Hijra or migration.
Today Muslims make up 34% of Ethiopia’s more than 115 million people.