Afrym
Ideas & Philosophy

Thirteen Months of Sunshine: How the Ethiopian Calendar Works

In Ethiopia it is currently the year 2017, there are 13 months, and the clock starts at dawn. Here is how one of the world's oldest calendars still runs a modern country.

By Amos Hope Jnr · · 3 min read

Illustration of an Ethiopian girl in a white embroidered dress reading in the highlands at sunrise

If you land in Addis Ababa in February 2025, you might be surprised to hear that, according to the local calendar, it is the year 2017. You might also learn that the year has 13 months, that New Year falls in September, and that when someone says to meet at "two o'clock," they may mean eight in the morning. Ethiopia runs on its own calendar — and its own clock — and both have a long history.

Twelve months, plus one

The Ethiopian calendar has:

  • Twelve months of 30 days each, and
  • A thirteenth month, Pagume, which is just five days long (it gains a sixth day every fourth year).

That gives 365 or 366 days, the same as the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world. The extra month became famous abroad through a tourism campaign that promised visitors "13 Months of Sunshine."

The months have Ge'ez names, starting with Meskerem, which begins in September. The calendar is closely related to the Coptic calendar of Egypt and to the ancient Egyptian calendar, which also had twelve 30-day months plus a few extra days.

Why seven or eight years "behind"?

The difference in years is not about being slow. It comes from a disagreement, centuries ago, about when Jesus was born.

Most of the world uses a year count based on the calculations of a 6th-century monk, Dionysius Exiguus. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, like the Coptic Church of Egypt, uses an older Alexandrian calculation that places the Annunciation several years later. The result is a gap that shifts during the year: from September to December, add seven to an Ethiopian year to get the Gregorian one; from January to early September, add eight. So February 2025 falls in the Ethiopian year 2017.

New Year in September

The Ethiopian New Year, Enkutatash, falls on 1 Meskerem — which is 11 September in the Gregorian calendar (or 12 September in the year before a Gregorian leap year). It comes at the end of the long rainy season, when the highlands are green and covered with bright yellow Meskel daisies (adey abeba). Families gather, children sing door to door and receive small gifts, and homes are decorated with flowers and fresh grass.

Other major festivals follow the same calendar, including:

  • Meskel (Finding of the True Cross), in late September, with huge bonfires;
  • Genna (Christmas), on 7 January;
  • Timkat (Epiphany), around 19 January, when replicas of the Ark of the Covenant are carried in procession — and which draws great crowds to holy sites such as Lalibela.

Ethiopian time

Ethiopia also counts the hours of the day differently. In traditional Ethiopian time, the day begins at dawn, not midnight. So "1 o'clock" in Ethiopian time is about 7 a.m. in international time; "6 o'clock" is noon. The hours of the night are counted from dusk.

This makes good sense close to the equator, where the sun rises and sets at about the same time all year. But it can confuse visitors. Many Ethiopians switch between the two systems easily, and it is common to ask whether a time is "Ethiopian" or "European."

A calendar for a whole nation

The Ethiopian calendar is not just a church tradition. It is the official calendar of the country, used on government documents, in schools, in newspapers and for financial years. Ethiopians use both calendars in daily life, especially in business with other countries. Eritrea's Orthodox Church uses it as well.

Why it matters

Ethiopia is one of very few countries in the world that kept its own calendar through the modern era — a reflection of its long, independent history and the central place of its ancient church. The calendar is a reminder that the way we count days and years is a human choice, not a law of nature. In Ethiopia, time has its own shape: thirteen months, a September New Year, and a day that begins with the sunrise.

Further reading

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