Ethiopia celebrates x-mas on 7 January ! seriously ?
The Ethiopian Calendar is little bit same as Julian calendar, which is different from western Gregorian calendar used by majority of the countries.
The dominant religion here orthodox Christianity which follows the same calendar the Roman church designed in 525AD which which got 13 months in a year and celebrates new year on September 11 or 12 . The first 12 months in this calendar have 30 days in each, the last 13th month known as “Pagume” has 5 days and 6 days in leap year.
The reason behind this change, is that both Georgian and Ethiopian use Birth time of Jesus as starting point of their calculation but they use alternate calculation in determining the birth date of Jesus.
The orthodox christian church of Ethiopia believes 7 BC ; 5500 years after god promises to Adam and Eve was the actual birth time but on other side Georgian considered it 1AD.The Georgian calendar was created in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, who made some changes to previously used Julian calendar.
And that is only the big reason behind that Ethiopia, a country of Africa is 7 to 8 years behind to the world. And its 2012 going on there.
Here are some different views why this country is actually living on its roots and old culture:
Ethiopian cuisine is much more about its rich cultural spicy flavors from raw meat to extensive vegetable . ‘INJERA’ is the country’s staple food . people here fast for 200–250 a year , by not avoiding eatery but not taking dairy products in that span.
Its got 70% of the mountains in African continent with most famous like Semien mountains or Danakill depression.
Ethiopian coffee ceremony is world famous , because coffee originated here and crowd here drinks it for hours to enjoy and relax. The” kaffa” province in the country is renowned for its coffee only . And t he word coffee also comes from “ kaffa” district.
Country also famous for its history and human evolution fossils .
Ethiopia got lot more to explore and experience other than interesting holiday dates !!
