Two o'clock, or eight? It depends whose clock

Ask the time in Addis Ababa and you may get two answers. The Ethiopian day is counted from dawn, so the first hour of daylight, our seven in the morning, is one o'clock. Midday is six. The hours of the night start again at dusk. When a guide says "we leave at two", they usually mean eight in the morning, and it is always worth asking "whose two?"

Most offices, airlines and hotels use the international clock. Markets, minibuses, churches and grandmothers use the Ethiopian one. It makes more sense near the equator than you might think: the sun rises and sets at roughly the same time all year.

Twelve months and a short one

The Ethiopian calendar is descended from the Coptic and the old Egyptian calendars. It has twelve months of exactly thirty days and a thirteenth, Pagume, of five days, or six in a leap year. New Year, Enkutatash, falls on 11 September (12 September in the year before a Gregorian leap year), as the long rains end and yellow adey daisies come up on the hills.

The year count is different too. Ethiopia dates the Annunciation differently from Rome, so the Ethiopian year runs seven or eight years behind. From September 2026, it is 2019 in Addis.

Why it matters for your trip

The great feasts are fixed in the Ethiopian calendar, so their Gregorian dates hardly move: Meskel on 27 or 28 September, Genna on 7 January, Timkat on 19 or 20 January. Easter, Fasika, follows the old Julian reckoning and moves, usually a week or more after Western Easter, and with it the fifty-five-day Lenten fast.

During the fasts many Orthodox Ethiopians eat no animal products until the afternoon, and menus follow. It is the best time of year for vegetable cooking. Our calendar converter will tell you what falls in your dates.