Ethiopian New Year

Worku Mulat, who has been working with Dr. Lowman and the TREE Foundation to help save the Ethiopia’s Church Forests, writes to say:
“Like church forests, this Calander is the contribution of Ethiopian Orthodox church. We have our own system of calculating the dates and months where the full rotation of the earth and the moon play important role in the equation. Some think this calendar is crazy. I argue otherwise.”

For more on the Ethiopian New Year and Calendar see this article from The African Report:
Ethiopia celebrates New Year 7 years behind Gregorian calendar

On September 12, Ethiopians will be celebrating the dawn of a new year – 2004. For the initiated this may sound anomalous but Ethiopia, a country of more than 80 million people, is behind time… literally.

The Horn of Africa country uses its own calendar and for them it is still 2003 which began on September 11, 2010 of the Gregorian calendar. There is a 276 year difference between the Ethiopic and Coptic calendars.

In spite of this, the Ethiopic calendar is closely associated with the rules and the different calculations influenced by the Coptic church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido church.

Based on the ancient Coptic calendar, the Ethiopian Calendar is seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar, owing to alternate calculations in determining the date of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Full article