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Ethiopian calendar

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Template:Contains Ethiopic text The Ethiopian calendar (Template:Lang-am; yä'Ityoṗṗya zämän aḳoṭaṭär) is the principal calendar used in Ethiopia and also serves as the liturgical year for Christians in Eritrea and Ethiopia belonging to the Orthodox Tewahedo churches, Eastern Catholic Churches and Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It is a solar calendar (the older Alexandrian or Coptic calendar brought to Ethiopia by missionaries) which in turn derives from the Egyptian calendar, but like the Julian calendar, it adds a leap day every four years without exception, and begins the year on August 29 or August 30 in the Julian calendar. A seven- to eight-year gap between the Ethiopian and Gregorian calendars results from an alternate calculation in determining the date of the Annunciation.

Like the Coptic calendar, the Ethiopic calendar has twelve months of 30 days plus five or six epagomenal days, which comprise a thirteenth month. The Ethiopian months begin on the same days as those of the Coptic calendar, but their names are in Ge'ez. The sixth epagomenal day is added every four years without exception on August 29 of the Julian calendar, six months before the Julian leap day. Thus the first day of the Ethiopian year, 1 Mäskäräm, for years between 1900 and 2099 (inclusive), is usually September 11 (Gregorian). It, however, falls on September 12 in years before the Gregorian leap year.

In the Gregorian year 2015, the Ethiopian calendar year 2008 begins on September 12, rather than September 11, on account of this additional epagomenal day occurring every four years.

New Year's Day

A building in downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, sports bunting in the Ethiopian national colors of green, yellow and red to mark the Ethiopian Millennium on September 11, 2007.

Enkutatash is the word for the Ethiopian New Year in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, while it is called Ri'se Awde Amet ("Head Anniversary") in Ge'ez, the term preferred by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It occurs on September 11 in the Gregorian calendar, except for the year following a leap year, when it occurs on September 12. The Ethiopian calendar year 1998 Amätä Məhrät ("Year of Mercy") began on September 11, 2005. However, the Ethiopian years 1996 and 1992 began on September 12, 2003 and 1999, respectively.

This date correspondence applies for the Gregorian years 1900 to 2099. The Ethiopian leap year is every four without exception, while Gregorian centurial years are only leap years when exactly divisible by 400; thus a set of corresponding dates will most often apply for a single century. As the Gregorian year 2000 is a leap year, the current correspondence lasts two centuries instead.

Eras

To indicate the year, Ethiopians and followers of the Eritrean churches today use the Incarnation Era, which dates from the Annunciation or Incarnation of Jesus on March 25, 9 AD (Julian), as calculated by Annianus of Alexandria c. 400; thus its first civil year began seven months earlier on August 29, AD 8. Meanwhile, Europeans eventually adopted the calculations made by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525 instead, which placed the Annunciation eight years earlier than had Annianus. This causes the Ethiopian year number to be eight years less than the Gregorian year number from January 1 until September 10 or 11, then seven years less for the remainder of the Gregorian year.

In the past, a number of other eras for numbering years were also widely used in Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aksum.

Era of Martyrs

The most important era—once widely used by the Eastern Christianity, and still used by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria—was the Era of Martyrs, also known as the Diocletian Era, or the era of Diocletian and the Martyrs, whose first year began on August 29, 284.

Respective to the Gregorian and Julian New Year's Days, 3 1/2 to four months later, the difference between the Era of Martyrs and the Anni Domini is 285 (= 15x19) years. This is because in AD 525, Dionysius Exiguus decided to add 15 Metonic cycles to the existing 13 Metonic cycles of the Diocletian Era (15x19 + 13x19 = 532) to obtain an entire 532-year medieval Easter cycle, whose first cycle ended with the year Era of Martyrs 247 (= 13x19) equal to year DXXXI. It is also because 532 is the product of the Metonic cycle of 19 years and the solar cycle of 28 years.

Anno Mundi according to Panodoros

Around AD 400, an Alexandrine monk called Panodoros fixed the Alexandrian Era (Anno Mundi = in the year of the world), the date of creation, on 29 August 5493 BC. After the 6th century AD, the era was used by Egyptian and Ethiopian chronologists. The twelfth 532-year-cycle of this era began on 29 August AD 360, and so 4x19 years after the Era of Martyrs.

Anno Mundi according to Anianos

Bishop Anianos preferred the Annunciation style as New Year's Day, 25 March (see above). Thus he shifted the Panodoros era by about six months, to begin on 25 March 5492 BC.

Leap year cycle

The four-year leap-year cycle is associated with the four Evangelists: the first year after an Ethiopian leap year is named in honour of John, followed by the Matthew-year and then the Mark-year. The year with the sixth epagomenal day is traditionally designated as the Luke-year.

There are no exceptions to the four-year leap-year cycle, like the Julian calendar but unlike the Gregorian calendar.

Months

Ge'ez, Amharic, and Tigrinya
(with Amharic suffixes in parentheses)		 Coptic Julian
(Old Calendar)
Start Date		 Gregorian
Start Date
[From March 1900 to February 2100]		 Gregorian Start Date
in Year after Ethiopian Leap Day
Mäskäräm (መስከረም) Tut (Thout) August 29 September 11 September 12
Ṭəqəmt(i) (ጥቅምት) Babah (Paopi) September 28 October 11 October 12
Ḫədar (ኅዳር) Hatur (Hathor) October 28 November 10 November 11
Taḫśaś ( ታኅሣሥ) Kiyahk (Koiak) November 27 December 10 December 11
Ṭərr(i) (ጥር) Tubah (Tobi) December 27 January 9 January 10
Yäkatit (Tn. Läkatit) (የካቲት) Amshir (Meshir) January 26 February 8 February 9
Mägabit (መጋቢት) Baramhat (Paremhat) February 25 March 10 March 10
Miyazya (ሚያዝያ) Baramundah (Parmouti) March 27 April 9 April 9
Gənbot (ግንቦት) Bashans (Pashons) April 26 May 9 May 9
Säne (ሰኔ) Ba'unah (Paoni) May 26 June 8 June 8
Ḥamle (ሐምሌ) Abib (Epip) June 25 July 8 July 8
Nähase (ነሐሴ) Misra (Mesori) July 25 August 7 August 7
Ṗagʷəmen/Ṗagume (ጳጐሜን/ጳጉሜ) Nasi (Pi Kogi Enavot) August 24 September 6 September 6

Note that these dates are valid only from March 1900 to February 2100. This is because 1900 and 2100 are not leap years in the Gregorian calendar, while they are still leap years in the Ethiopian calendar, meaning dates before 1900 and after 2100 will be offset.

Sources

  • "The Ethiopian Calendar", Appendix IV, C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, The Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961).
  • Ginzel, Friedrich Karl, "Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie", Leipzig, 3 vol., 1906-1914
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