Double high fives to Saint Augustine of Hippo , the philosopher and theologizer from the ancient Roman land of Numidia in Northwest Africa , who reflect and indite these prescient air right smart back in 397 C.E. :
Surely in the sea of our collective cognizance we all vibrate with his sense of the equivocalness of meter and the abysmal lack of human language to express what " time " even is in the first plaza . But buckle up and prepare to be mind - boggle ( and pretty impressed ) as we explore and examine to grasp some facts about how Ethiopia calculatestime .
How Is Time Measured Differently in Ethiopia?
Most of us utilize theGregorian(aka Western or European ) calendar marked with 12 calendar month consist 28 to 31 years each . We measure time based on four distinct season , and our young year rolls around like clockwork one week after Christmas on each and every January 1 .
Not in Ethiopia .
fit in to theEthiopian calendar(akaGe’ezorGeezcalendar ) a yr consists of 365 days , six hours , two minutes and 24 seconds . That adds up to 13 calendar month , 12 of which have on the button 30 mean solar day each . The 13th month ( calledpagume — from the Greekepagomene — imply " days forgotten when a year is calculated " ) has only five or six days . Once every four years , the six hours lend up to 24 hour and become the 6th 24-hour interval in a jump twelvemonth . And once every 600 years , those two minute and 24 indorsement add up to one whole day and become aseventh day , which the Ethiopians callrena mealtandrena lelit .
Messing with our promontory even further , the Ethiopian calendar is several day behind the Western calendar . While that may seem flakey , it ’s actually not super strange for some body politic to have their own calendar — for example , Israel officially utilize theJewish calendarand Saudi Arabia has anIslamic calendar .
But what about a area with its own unique way of say time ? Turns out , Ethiopia guages the whole concept of fourth dimension other than : Instead of a 24 - hour day , Ethiopia is the only country in the world with a 12 - hour time system . And this is where it gets really complicated .
A show of hands if you ’d like someone from Ethiopia to infract this down for us ?
assemble Genet Teka , born and raised inAddis Ababa , Ethiopia ’s majuscule city . An aspiring pupil and a host at one of Atlanta ’s most culturally various and iconic eateries , The Flying Biscuit , Teka came to America in 2013 — leave most of her family behind in Ethiopia — to live with her aunt and cousin and form her elbow room through school with an center toward becoming certified in IT . Luckily for us , she agreed to help us empathize how her home country measures time .
How Does the Ethiopian Calendar Work?
But before she begins , here ’s the real gobsmacker : The Ethiopian calendar is seven years and eight month behind the westerly calendar . It ’s 2016 in Ethiopia .
Genet Teka of Addis Ababa , please help !
[ notice that we spoke with Teka in 2023 , so when she references 2015 , that ’s because the audience took lieu when the year in Ethiopia was , well , 2015 . ]
" First matter to empathize , " explain Teka , " is that Ethiopia has 13 months and all of them have 30 days — except the last month , which has 5 days , or 6 days during a leap yr . So when it was September 11 ( akaMeskerem , " a giving of jewel , " Ethiopia’sNew Year ) on the Gregorian calendar , it was the first twenty-four hour period of the first calendar month on the Ethioipian calendar . Note that does n’t think of that it will be the first day of the second calendar month again , let ’s say for example , on October 11 , because even though the Ethiopian calendar has consistent 30 days in its 12 months , the number of days in a month changes to between 28 and 31 days on the Gregorian calendar . That ’s what creates the date departure as well as the month difference , " sound out Teka .
obnubilate ? Stay with us …
" So , say today on the Gregorian calendar is the second month , 11th day of the twelvemonth 2023 . But on the Ethiopian calendar it ’s the 6th calendar month , fourth day of the year 2015 . If we bet at the next calendar month for example , the third calendar month , 12th day of 2023 on the Gregorian calendar will be the seventh month , third daytime , of 2015 on the Ethiopian calendar , " clarify Teka .
Ethiopia Also Gauges Time Differently
So , what about the 12 - hourEthiopian clock ? How exactly does that work ?
day is the key to empathize how Ethiopia keeps time . Because it lie about 15 degrees northerly of the equator , that close proximity means that the days remain relatively ordered throughout the year . So while most of the domain begins the new day at midnight , Ethiopia begin the new day at break of day .
" The Clarence Shepard Day Jr. pretty much set out at 12 o’clock when the sun rise , and noon is 6 o’clock , and the end of the day is 12 o’clock when the sunlight sets . People living over there do n’t really usea.m . or p.m …. For deterrent example , if they ’re going to see someone at 2 p.m. American fourth dimension they would say , ' permit ’s meet at 8 o’clock in the afternoon . ' Or they might not even mention the afternoon part because the other 8 o’clock is in the heart of the night — so it ’s mechanically understand it ’s in the daytime , " says Teka . " For the sake of lucidity , 12 o’clock daybreak is 6 ante meridiem , 4 o’clock is 10 p.m. , 6 o’clock midday is 12 p.m. , 2 o’clock at dark is 8 p.m. , 6 o’clock midnight is 12 a.m. and so on . "
become all that ? await , there ’s more .
Dawn to dusk is the first 12 - hr cycle , called the daytime cycles/second — and dusk to dawn is the second 12 - 60 minutes cycle , called the nighttime cycle . Because of this dawn - to - dusk and dusk - to - break of the day cycle per second , local time in Ethiopia is six hours behindEast Africa Time(EAT ) . So , that means that 7 a.m. EAT is 1 day time of day in local Ethiopian time .
Make sensory faculty , or is your whisker on fire ? It actually kind of does make signified and is even practical in a country where the length of the days does n’t vary a mickle from season to season . But it must be a bit confusing to anyone who has their watch and other gadget set up to East Africa Time .
So what ’s the history behind all this , and how do the multitude of Ethiopia hold their singular calendar and sentence difference when relating to the rest of the world ?
tenacious story short , the Ethiopian calendar is base on the ancient Coptic calendar and is seven age and eight months behind the Gregorian calendar , due to alternate calculations in determining thebirth date of Jesus . The calendar start out count 24-hour interval from 7 B.C.E. onwards , while other calendar start with the birth of Jesus on 1 C.E. The Roman Catholic Church heavily influence many land that practice the Gregorian calendar , but Ethiopia wasnever colonizedand plain out all the missionary . Since it did n’t accept outside influence , it has continued to utilise its own historic calendar to this day .
" People who live in Ethiopia mostly use the Ge’ez calendar unless they ’re doing anything globally , in which case they use the Gregorian calendar . Otherwise the remainder does n’t really affect us other than birth to switch calendars back and off when needed , " Teka explains .
" Most people , peculiarly in the countryside , do n’t really use the Gregorian calendar because they do n’t care that they ’re behind more than seven years . And those who do expend the Gregorian calendar may or may not fuck the history of why it ’s behind , " says Teka . " Ethiopia has a unlike Christmas day than most of the rest of the populace , except Coptic Orthodox Christians — who fete it on January 7 or on the Ethiopian calendar Christmas — orGenna , is celebrated onTahisas 29 . "
Ms. Teka , our " fourth dimension traveling " citizen of Ethiopia , continues .
" The way I opine about it is that fourth dimension is just a reference work — just a human construct . I mean , we might say it ’s 2015 in Ethiopia , but in reality we all live in the present time . Therefore , even though it sound like Ethiopia is behind seven years and eight calendar month literally — it ’s just the way our calendar is cypher and does n’t mean that citizenry over there are really live in the class 2015 . "
