Welcome to 2019: Meet the African Country Entering a New Year Today

While much of the world is in 2026, Ethiopia is welcoming 2019 today.

September 11 marks the Ethiopian New Year, known asEnkutatash, bringing 2018 to an end and beginning a new year according to the Ethiopian calendar.

Why Is Ethiopia in 2019?

The difference goes back centuries.

Ethiopia uses a calendar based on the ancient Alexandrian calendar tradition.

Its calculation of the date of Jesus Christ's birth differs from the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world, leaving the two systems roughly seven to eight years apart. A gap traced to how theEthiopian calendar calculates the Annunciation differently from the Julian and Gregorian systems.

That is why September 2026 is 2018 on the Ethiopian calendar until today's New Year.

The Ethiopian calendar is not simply kept for religious occasions or historical purposes. It remains part of life in Ethiopia, alongside the Gregorian calendar.

A Year With 13 Months

The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months,

The first 12 months have 30 days each. The final month, Pagumen, has five days in a normal year and six during a leap year.

The extra days are placed at the end of the year, making Pagumen much shorter than the other months.

It also means Ethiopians mark two New Years within the same Gregorian year, one at the start of Pagumen's countdown, another when Meskerem, the first month, begins.

Why Does Ethiopia Celebrate New Year in September?

The Ethiopian New Year is known as Enkutatash. It is celebrated on September 11 in most years and moves to September 12 in a Gregorian leap-year cycle.

Today, Enkutatash is being marked with family gatherings, church services, music, food and other traditional celebrations.

Children may go from house to house singing New Year songs, while yellow flowers, particularly the bright yellow adey flower, are associated with the season because they bloom around the beginning of the Ethiopian year.

The name Enkutatash is commonly translated as "gift of jewels." It is linked to atraditional account of the Queen of Sheba returning to Ethiopia from a journey to Jerusalem, where she was welcomed with jewels.

A Calendar That Became Part of Ethiopian Identity

The Ethiopian calendar remains connected to the country's religious, cultural and historical life.

Ethiopia's long history and distinctive institutions helped preserve traditions that developed differently from those that became dominant in Europe and much of the rest of the world.

The calendar is one example.

Traditional Ethiopian timekeeping is another.

The day is traditionally counted from sunrise, rather than midnight. What someone elsewhere might call 7 a.m., for example, can traditionally be described as the first hour of the Ethiopian day.

This can make Ethiopian dates and times look unfamiliar when placed beside Gregorian dates and Western clocks, even though they refer to the same days and hours.

As Ethiopia enters 2019 today, it is not travelling seven years into the past.

It is marking a new year according to a calendar that has its own history and remains part of modern Ethiopian life.

Ask an Ethiopian how old they are, and you might get two different numbers, not because anyone's confused, but because both calendars are still doing real work in their lives.