Melkam Addis Alem

Billboard hits from 2006

-       Don’t Forget About Us- Mariah Carey

-       Check on It – Beyonce

-       You’re Beautiful – James Blunt

-       Temperature – Sean Paul

-       SOS – Rihanna

-       Hips Don’t Lie – Shakira

-       SexyBack – Justin Timberlake

While 2006 seems well in the past to many in Ethiopia, this time last week (our Sept 11) Ethiopians were ringing in their new year! Happy 2006—take two?

 The Ethiopian Calendar is based on the Alexandrian or Coptic calendar, this puts them seven years behind the majority of the world who follow the Gregorian Calendar. The amount of days between the two calendars fluctuates as they also have a 13^th month known as Pagume and all other months only have 30 days (minus leap years).

Ethiopians also use a different clock, which can create confusion when making arrangements with the likes of taxi drivers or restaurants. What the international community would refer to as 8pm or 20:00, in Ethiopian is 2 o’clock (6 hours behind a standard 12 hour clock). The easiest way people tend to differentiate is by referring to one as Habesha (Ethiopian) time and Forenji (foreigner) time.

So how do Ethiopians celebrate the New Year?

While at home there is always a lot of hype around making great NYE plans, it tends to be one of those nights that most find to be overrated. And yes there were many events, concerts, dinners etc. that you could attend in the city similar to the type you would attend in Canada. Yet, hands down the most common response I received when asking Ethiopians what they would do to celebrate was “eat meat.. lots and lots of meat”. Thus in order for the Ethiopians to eat all this meat goats, cattle chickens etc had to be slaughtered on the masses. Needless to say there was a noticeable increase in livestock roaming the streets of Addis, likely on route to the slaughterhouses, in the week leading up to New Years.

It is however worthwhile mentioning that this year Sept 11^th fell on a FASTING DAY. Now what might that mean? All Orthodox Christians (the majority of Ethiopians) ‘fast’ every Wednesday and Friday which essentially means they are vegans for the day- aka they consume no animal products. Thus, this put a huge damper on the main event- meat eating- of the celebrations! As a result many also took Thursday as a holiday, slaughter their goat or chickens, and made up for the lost day by consuming more meat than most can imagine!

It was wonderful to be here for New Years, the atmosphere in my office alone on NYE day reminded me of grad school children, unable to focus before their Christmas holidays! There was a coffee ceremony, cake and lots of Ethiopian dancing! As excited as I am, to re-live 2006, I am even more excited that many consider the Ethiopian New Year to mark the end of the rainy season! Bring on the sunshine!

So happy 2006 every body! Melkam Addis Alem J