Happy New Year!...But Not in Ethiopia

Ethiopia celebrates New Years on September 11th and will enter into 2004 this September.  Enkutatash or Ethiopian (Ethiopian) New Year is not celebrated according to the Western or Gregorian calendar but is based on the older Alexandrian or Coptic calendar, which in turn derives from the Egyptian calendar. Like the Julian calendar, it adds a leap day every four years without exception, but it also consists of 12 months of 30 days and a 13th month, Pagume, of five or six days, depending on whether or not it is a leap year. The Ethiopian calendar is seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian calendar.


But, for the rest of the world, Happy New Year!