Saturday, September 11, 2010

MELKAM ADDIS AMET!!!

Happy New Year 2003!

In Ethiopia they still follow the Julian calender, it is divided up in 12 months of 30 days and then a 13th month which has 5 days or 6 days during leap year.

Enkutatash is the formal name for the first day of the New Year which means the "gift of jewels". When the famous Queen of Sheba returned from her expensive jaunt to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem, her chiefs welcomed her back by replenishing her treasury with lots of
jewels. The spring festival has been celebrated since this early time
and as the rains come to their abrupt end, dancing and singing can be
heard at every village in the green countryside. Meskerem (September) is
seen as a month of transition from the old year to the new.


This means the Ethiopian calendar is 8 years behind the more commonly used Gregorian calendar from January to September and 7 years behind from September 11 - January 8. Now can you imagine how hard it is to translate birth dates from the Ethiopian calendar to the Gregorian Calendar?


Enkutatash is not exclusively a religious holiday. Today's Enkutatash is also the season from exchanging formal new year greetings and cards
among the urban sophisticated - in lieu of the traditional bouquet of
flowers. It is a time to express hopes and dreams for the future.
(excerpts of this information was taken from our agency's weekly update)

I saw this video yesterday and love how it captures the beauty of this celebration. Ethiopians have some serious dance moves!


Keeping with my promise for updated puzzle pictures......
we've sold 103 puzzle pieces! I love watching as this puzzle comes together. What an incredible testimony for our precious daughter. She will always know who helped bring her into her forever family. Thank you.

2 comments:

Alison said...

Happy New Year to ya'll! And I love seeing all the puzzle pieces come together!!

Us4 Cats said...

hi. i was just reading about the Eth calendar via another blog.

very interesting.

wanted to say hi; we too are adopting from Ethiopia.