Ethiopian Calendar Facts For Kids

Ethiopian calendar is the special way people in Ethiopia keep track of years and holidays. It is the official civil calendar of Ethiopia, and many people in Eritrea and Ethiopian and Eritrean communities around the world also follow it. Churches in Ethiopia and Eritrea—like the Orthodox and other Christian groups—use this calendar for their religious feasts and services, too.

The calendar looks different from the one you may know (the Gregorian calendar). It has its own months and a different way to count years. Because of these differences, dates and the year number do not match the Gregorian calendar.

The Ethiopian New Year is a bright holiday with songs and celebrations. In Amharic it is called Enkutatash, which means “gift of jewels.” In Geʽez and Tigrinya it is called Kudus Yohannes. The holiday usually falls on 11 September in the Gregorian calendar. In years when the Gregorian calendar has a leap day, Ethiopian New Year falls on 12 September instead.

This New Year is linked to a church feast called El-Nayrouz, and it moves into September on the Gregorian calendar. Families often gather, give small gifts, and enjoy music and dancing to welcome the new year.

The main way Ethiopians count years is called the Incarnation Era. This system starts from a date that marks the Annunciation and birth of Jesus, as calculated long ago. A scholar named Annianus of Alexandria worked this out around the year 400 and set the starting point on old calendars.

Because the Incarnation Era begins on a different older date and the Ethiopian year starts in September, the Ethiopian year number is not the same as the Gregorian year. For part of the Gregorian year the Ethiopian number is eight years less, and after September it becomes seven years less.

Before the Incarnation Era was common, another counting system was used called the Era of Martyrs, also known as the Diocletian Era. This era started long ago, with its first year beginning on 29 October 328. It was named for a time when many Christians suffered for their beliefs, and the name remembers those people in a respectful way.

The Era of Martyrs was used widely in eastern Christian lands for many centuries. Today, it is still kept alive in some places, such as the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, which uses it for some of its church records and dates.

leap year in the Ethiopian calendar happens every four years, and the rule is very simple: there are no exceptions. In a leap year the short thirteenth month, Pagume, has six days instead of five. That extra day helps the calendar stay in step with the seasons so harvests and holidays happen at the right times.

People also name years in a four-year pattern after the four Gospel writers: John, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The year named for Luke is the one that includes the extra day. Because the rule is always “every four years,” it is easy to predict when the next leap year will come.

The Ethiopian year has twelve months that are each thirty days long, plus a tiny thirteenth month called Pagume. Most years Pagume has five days, and in a leap year it has six. Together the months add up so the calendar matches the cycle of the sun and the seasons.

Month names are from the old language Geʽez, and the Ethiopian months begin on the same days used by the Coptic calendar. For people who want to match Ethiopian months to our modern Gregorian dates, simple tables are used for recent years, but the exact matching can slide a little when looking across very long spans of centuries because of how leap days fall.