Ethiopian New Year

One row for each new year: the Gregorian day it lands on, the weekday, and the Ethiopian year it opens.

Twelve months of 30 days, and a thirteenth — Pagume — of 5, or 6 every fourth year. That extra day pushes the next new year one day later in the Gregorian calendar, onto 12 September; the year after brings it back to 11 September.

The two calendars also part company, slowly. Ethiopia keeps the older leap rule, which has no century exception, so 2100 is a leap year there and is not one in the Gregorian calendar — and from that year the dates above shift.

Ethiopian years run seven or eight behind Gregorian ones: seven from Enkutatash to the end of the Gregorian year, eight from there to the next one. The table gives the year each Enkutatash opens; the converter will give you any other date.

እንቁጣጣሽ is the Amharic name for the day. It is traditionally read as a gift of jewels, and told with the return of the queen of Sheba. It falls where the long rains end and the highlands come up yellow with አደይ አበባ, the daisy children carry from door to door.