Celebrating Ethiopian New Year Traditions

Ethiopia celebrates its New Year, known as Enkutatash, today September 11 because the country follows a unique calendar system known as the Ethiopian calendar. Unlike the Gregorian calendar used in much of the world, the Ethiopian calendar has 13 months—12 months of 30 days each, plus a 13th month called Pagumē, which has 5 or 6 days depending on the leap year. The Ethiopian calendar is also about 7-8 years behind the Gregorian calendar due to differences in calculating the date from when the an