Time Delay

Question: When the New Year’s ball dropped in Times Square and the world welcomed in 2026, what destination welcomed in the year 2018?

Answer: Ethiopia

It may be 2026 in the rest of the world, but they’re partying like it’s 2018 in Ethiopia. Actually, while everyone else was clinking their glasses at midnight to ring in the New Year, Ethiopia had already toasted 2018 a few months earlier. New Years falls on September 11 in Ethiopia (or September 12 during a leap year), and it’s been that way for centuries. Perhaps you’re thinking, well, is that so unusual? Israel has a Hebrew calendar, and Saudi Arabia has an Islamic one, don’t they? True, but those countries and a few others pretty much rely on a “dual calendar” system—one for their culture and another, the standard Gregorian calendar, to align with the rest of the world and facilitate business and the like. Ethiopia doesn’t do that.

This begs the question, of course. How can Africa’s second most populous country be eight years “behind” the rest of the world? Well, they’re actually seven years and eight months behind. And it all has to do with someone’s birthday …

Without getting too much into the weeds, the Ethiopian calendar and the Gregorian, or “Western,” calendar both use the birthdate of Jesus Christ as its starting point. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, however, believes Christ was born in 7 BC, because that aligns precisely with what it says in the Bible about God’s promise to Adam and Eve that they would be saved in 5,500 years—so they started counting days from 7 BC. Other calendars, obviously, began counting days from 1 AD.

When Pope Gregory XIII introduced his namesake calendar in 1582, he made a few changes to the previously used Julian calendar. And all the countries under the dominion of the Catholic Church, who were supposed to adopt this new calendar, weren’t happy with the changes. Especially, the one that required them to drop 11 days from their Julian calendar. But Ethiopia, Africa’s oldest country, had never been colonized and was free of any outside influences including the Roman Catholic Church. So, when the rest of the world adopted the Gregorian calendar, Ethiopia said, “no thanks, we’re good,” and kept their original calendar. And since it began counting the days and years from 7 BC, they would always be 7 or 8 years behind the rest of the world.

Wait, how many days hath September?

Ethiopia’s calendar is known as the Ge’ez calendar—and no, not because people scratch their head and say “Geez, are you kidding me?” Ge’ez has 13 months in a year, 12 of which have 30 days. The 13th, the last month, is just a shorty with five or six days, depending on whether it’s a leap year, making the calendar align with the solar cycle (that last month is called Pagume, from a Greek word epagomene, which means “days forgotten when a year is calculated.” Ya gotta love that!).

Everyone knows that the number of days in our calendar, the Gregorian, varies a bit each month. Some of this was the result of kings adding extra days in their Julian calendar for months like July and August, which were named after Julius Caesar and Augustus, and have 31 days each. Confusing as Ethiopia’s calendar may be, let’s give them credit for keeping it simple—and at least Ethiopian kids don’t have to memorize a silly rhyme just to remember how many days each month has like we do! Another advantage to having a 13-month calendar for Ethiopia is not having to worry about another country stealing your popular tourist motto: "Ethiopia: 13 Months of Sunshine."

You think Ethiopia’s calendar is strange? Wait until you see its clocks …

Sure, Ethiopia’s calendar can be a little bewildering for visiting travelers. But as mentioned, a few other countries have their own unique calendars so it’s not unprecedented. Where it gets truly bizarre is the way Ethiopia measures time. Instead of a 24-hour day, Ethiopia operates on a 12-hour time system—and they are the only country in the world that does this. Let that sink in. 

Dawn to dusk is the first 12-hour cycle, called the daytime cycle—and the second 12-hour cycle, from dusk to dawn, is the nighttime cycle. They don’t bother with “AMs or PMs,” so both midday and midnight is “6 o'clock” in Ethiopian time. Say you met someone in Ethiopia and wanted to grab a coffee with her the next day at 2pm (American time). She might say, “Sure, I’ll be there at 8 o’clock” (she wouldn’t need to say “in the afternoon” because the other 8 o’clock would be in the middle of the night—it’s automatically understood that you’re talking about the daytime). Has your head exploded yet?!

Why in the world would they do this? To Ethiopians, this actually makes more sense. Due to the country’s proximity to the equator, the hours of daylight remain pretty consistent from season to season. They feel that starting the day at dawn makes far more sense than starting it at midnight when everyone is asleep. Ethiopians do understand how confusing this can be for travelers visiting the country, however, and when making appointments with international guests, will (usually) ask whether they are referring to Ethiopian or Western time. So just throw your watch back in the suitcase because it’s doubtful whether you can ever synchronize it with Ethiopian time.

All of this makes one wonder if Saint Augustine of Hippo (present day Algeria) had Ethiopia in mind when he penned these words in 397 AD: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.”

Ethiopia, one of the oldest countries in the world, has always marched to its own drummer. And the calendar and clock aren’t the only things that make it stand out from the crowd …

10 more things that make Ethiopia such a fascinating destination

• Europeans stay out—Ethiopia is the only African country never to have been colonized. Mussolini gave it a try in 1935, but his six-year military occupation didn’t end well, and the country was never brought under control. A common refrain from Ethiopians is how they “waited until they had built us railways and nice buildings … and then kicked them out.”


• None friendlier—A Rough Guides readers’ survey voted Ethiopians the friendliest people—not just in Africa, but in the world. “It was never colonized,” they said, “so the tribal customs and hospitable traditions you can see here are largely just as they’ve always been.”


• A, B, C’s—Founded in 980 BC, Ethiopia is the only African country with its own indigenous written alphabet—Amharic.


• Early adopter—Ethiopia was one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity.


• Lucy, I’m home!—In 1974, archaeologists uncovered a hominin they nicknamed “Lucy” who roamed a desert in northern Ethiopia about 3.25 million years ago. Because she was bipedal—walked on two feet—her discovery was a game-changer in the story of human evolution.


• What, before Starbucks?!— You can thank Ethiopia for your morning wake-up beverage. Actually, you can thank some Ethiopian goats. The story goes that after an Ethiopian goat herder observed his flock’s fondness for the berries of a certain bush, he gave them a nibble and the world-wide coffee industry took off from there.


• Strange calendar, stranger animals—While there is no “Big Five” in Ethiopia, there are some pretty unusual creatures found here—from bearded vultures and rock-climbing goats to huge troops of geladas, mop-topped primates found nowhere else on Earth.


• Got you beat pyramids—No other African nation has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than Ethiopia—not even Egypt.


• You thought it was Jamaica, mon?—While it evolved in Jamaica, Ethiopia is the birthplace of the Rastafarian movement. “Ras,” in Amharic, is a title like chief. And “Tafari” is the first name of the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. Take a look at the colors of the Ethiopian flag if you need further evidence.


• Check lost and found—The Biblical Ark of The Covenant, the supposed repository of the 10 Commandments, is believed to be located in St. Mary of Tsion, otherwise known as the “Mother Church of Ethiopia.” It’s not certain, however, as even the specially chosen guardians of the Ark are forbidden to confirm if it is actually there. Maybe Harrison Ford should go check it out …

Discover ancient traditions and famously friendly people during New! Ethiopia: Cultural Discoveries in an Ancient Land.