September 11, 2012

Melkam Addis Amet!

Currently Writing: tomorrow's lesson plan

Today is Ethiopian New Year's!


In the Ethiopian calendar, there are 13 months -- 12 months of 30 days each, then a 13th shorter month called Pagume, made up of all the leftover days. And in Ethiopia, today is the first day of 2005! (Another fun fact: Ethiopians also tell time differently -- it's six hours off from Western time, because they start counting the day when the sunrises (and, being so close the equator, the sun rises at a pretty regular time the whole year round.) So, for example, our 8:00 would be their 2:00. I'm sure you can imagine the confusion in planning that this can sometimes cause...)

Five years ago, Ethiopians celebrated the millennium, and they celebrated it big. And as that year was a leap year, it meant that New Year's fell on the 12th, which also happens to be my birthday! This meant the day off school and driving to the outskirts of town and midnight to sit on the car's roof rack and watch fireworks shooting up all across the city. Such a good memory.

So melkam addis amet to all my habesha friends!

[photography by Esther Havens, via Pinterest. Isn't it beautiful?]


1 comment:

  1. How cool! I saw your comment on Design Mom.. thanks for sharing!! I'm going to have to read some more of your posts!

    ReplyDelete

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