The true meaning of September 11 (2007-04-17)

(Originally posted on 17 April 2007.)

This coming September 11th, I welcome you to join me in celebrating the new millennium. No, I’m not delusional – it really is the beginning of the new millennium for at least 60 million people – the people of Ethiopia.

Of course, I could relaunch the old debate about the millennium beginning in 2000 versus 2001, and seeing as I’m of the latter camp, we’d all have to wait another year… But I’ll let the mistaken majority have their way, succumb to the magic of all those zeros, and celebrate right along.)

Ethiopia uses the Orthodox Julian calendar, which is seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian (western) calendar. That means that in Ethiopia it is now 1999, with the year 2000 arriving on 11 September 2007. Big celebrations for the new millennium are planned running from August to October this year. As I’ve been calculating that we’re likely to travel to Ethiopia around late September or early to mid-October, we might even see some of the celebrations – or their after-effects. Wouldn’t it be great to be there for the new millennium? (How many people get to celebrate the coming of a new millennium twice in their lifetime?!)

The difference in calendar also means that I’m a Christmas baby. Darn. I thought it was bad enough having a birthday two weeks after Christmas… but on the other hand, it gives us even more reason to extend our festive celebrations for that extra week (or more) after western New Year.

The Ethiopian calendar has 12 months of 30 days each, plus a 13th month of either five or six days, depending whether it’s a leap year. Here are the names of the months and how they relate to the Gregorian calendar.

• Meskerem starts 11 September (or 12 September in a leap year)
• Tikemet 11 or 12 October
• Hidar 10 or 11 November
• Tahesas 10 or 11 December
• Tir 9 or 10 January
• Yekatit 8 or 9 February
• Megabit 10 March
• Miyaza 9 Apr
• Ginbot 9 May
• Sene 8 June
• Hamle 8 July
• Nehase 7 August
• Pagume 6 September

This means we’ll have three New Year celebrations in our family! The usual 1 January, then Chinese New Year (sometime between mid-January and mid-February, depending on the lunar cycle) and Ethiopian New Year, 11 September (or 1 Meskerem). The name of the holiday is Enkutatash and the Ethiopian greeting is “Melkam Addis Amet!” (You’ll note the “Addis” as in “Addis Ababa.” The name of the Ethiopian capital means “New Flower.”)

As a child I always felt that fall was really when the “new year” started – because that’s when everyone began a new year at school, moving into the next grade, and you got new school supplies and often new clothes as well. Now my childhood imagining will have some reality for my own kids.