Ethiopia Celebrates their Millennium!

Miss Addison took part in a very important celebration last week. She was in the mix celebrating Ethiopia’s Millennium. O.K., so I’m about a week late with this post, but I wanted to share a report from the BBC News in Addis Ababa explaining why Ethiopia is just now celebrating their millennium. People in Ethiopia celebrated the New Year on September 12th. It was the start of the year 2000 and the beginning of millennium celebrations. The reason why they are celebrating more than seven years after the rest of the world is rooted in Ethiopian history and in the beliefs of its own Christian Orthodox Church. Educated Ethiopians live comfortably in two calendars. Prior to September 12, it was still 1999. However, there is the complication caused by the leap years in the two calendars being out of sync. But even if they are quite at home with the Western calendar, Ethiopians show no sign of wanting to abandon their own. Thirteen months is part of their national identity, not to mention allowing their tourist industry to boast that they can offer visitors 13 months of sunshine.
The short 13th month is just one of the tell-tale signs that Ethiopians took their calendar from ancient Egypt. Another is the date of New Year, originally linked to the annual flood which brought new life to the Nile Valley. But none of this explains why the millennium is seven years late; why Ethiopians think that it is 2000 and not 2007 years since the birth of Christ. Conservative culture Ahmed Zakaria, professor of history at Addis Ababa University says the reason is that the Roman Church amended their calculation in 500 AD - adjusting it by seven or eight years. The Patriarch says Ethiopia became isolated from Europe"So we are seven or eight years later than the Roman calculation, so that's the difference that came in." The recalculation of the birth of Christ was just the first of a number of changes in the rest of the world which the Ethiopian church ignored. It is partly because the country was so remote and isolated, but also, says the current patriarch, Abuna Paulos I, because Ethiopian Christians are intensely conservative. "People are not inclined for any reformations, especially when it comes to religion. "They are very much loyal - to change one sentence is a betrayal as far as they are concerned."So because of this, they have been isolated. They have been loyal to their faith and they have maintained their own traditions." So there you have it. Happy Millennium Ethiopia!

Above are photos of Addison celebrating the Millennium at Meskerem - a great Ethiopian restaurant. In the first photo, she's enjoying the attention of two waitresses. In the next one, she's doing what she does best...striking a pose for the camera.