Ethiopia
Ethiopia observes thirteen public holidays, and most of them are set by the Ethiopian calendar rather than the Gregorian one. The calendar has thirteen months, so Ethiopian dates drift about eleven days earlier each year and are then reset. Getting that reset right is where most Ethiopian holiday coverage goes wrong.
The public holidays
- Genna - Ethiopian Christmas, 7 January (Tahsas 29)
- Timkat - Epiphany, 19 January (20 January in the year before a Gregorian leap year)
- Adwa Victory Day - 2 March
- Good Friday
- Easter
- International Labour Day - 1 May
- Ethiopian Patriots' Victory Day - 5 May
- Downfall of the Derg - 28 May
- Eid al-Fitr
- Eid al-Adha
- Enkutatash - Ethiopian New Year, 11 September
- Meskel - Finding of the True Cross, 27 September
- Moulid - the Prophet's Birthday
The thirteen-month calendar
The Ethiopian calendar counts twelve months of thirty days plus a short thirteenth month of five or six days. That structure is tied to the Coptic Easter cycle and to the agricultural year of the highland rains, which is why the new year is deliberately kept near the end of the rainy season rather than tracking the Gregorian year.
The practical consequence is that Ethiopian dates do not map to fixed Gregorian dates. They drift earlier by roughly eleven days a year and are periodically reset. For Enkutatash the reset is small and easy to state: September 11 in ordinary years, September 12 in the year before a Gregorian leap year.
New Year is September 11, not 21
This is worth stating plainly because it is a frequent error rather than a matter of interpretation. Ethiopian New Year is Meskerem 1, and it falls on September 11 in ordinary years. It slips to September 12 in the year before a Gregorian leap year - so 2027 and 2031 are the next two September 12 new years, while 2026, 2028, 2029 and 2030 all fall on September 11.
No version of the Ethiopian calendar puts the new year on 21 September. If you encounter that date, the source has miscalculated, and it should not be relied on.
The September cluster
Two of the year's most important observances sit sixteen days apart in late September. Enkutatash opens the year on 11 September, marked by the meskel daisy blooming in the highlands and a shared meal of injera. Sixteen days later, on 27 September, comes Meskel, the Finding of the True Cross, marked at dawn by a great bonfire of thorn bushes and a barefoot procession.
The two share a flower as well as a month: the meskel daisy is the emblem of both seasons, which is why it is sold in armfuls in the weeks around the new year. A small wrinkle worth knowing is that Meskel is sometimes listed as 28 September in the same years the new year moves to 12 September, because it is derived from Meskerem 17. Ethiopian Proclamation No. 1334/2024 gives the date as 27 September, so that is the date to plan around.
Timkat and the January celebrations
Ethiopia's January is unusually crowded for a country with thirteen public holidays. Timkat, the Epiphany festival, falls on 19 January - or 20 January in the year before a Gregorian leap year - and marks the baptism of Christ in the Jordan with a ceremonial replica of the Ark of the Covenant carried in procession, finally blessing the water. Timkat is also the festival of Eritrea, where it is called Timket. Genna, Ethiopian Christmas, falls earlier, on 7 January, and is marked by the Gena game, hockey on a rough pitch with a curved stick, played in the afternoon after the overnight liturgy.
Fixed Gregorian dates in an Ethiopian year
Alongside the drift-prone Ethiopian dates, Ethiopia also observes commemorations fixed to the Gregorian calendar, and these are the ones most likely to be remembered out of context. Adwa Victory Day on 2 March commemorates the 1896 defeat of Italy at Adwa, the decisive African victory of the scramble for Africa. Ethiopian Patriots' Victory Day on 5 May marks the fall of the Derg in 1991, and 28 May commemorates the defeat of the Derg regime itself in the same year. They are genuine national days rather than church days, and they do not move with the thirteen-month calendar.
Major holiday briefs on this page
- Timkat - Epiphany, 19 January
- Enkutatash - Ethiopian New Year, 11 September
- Meskel - Finding of the True Cross, 27 September
- Genna - Ethiopian Christmas, 7 January
- Easter
- Moulid - the Prophet's Birthday