Melkam Addis Amet

Today is New Year's Day in Addis Ababa. Here is just a little information about this holiday in Ethiopia. (I am lifting this from another blog I follow, if you click on the Family Without Borders blog you can follow Kristine's family and their journey to their 2 precious babes...it is a really good blog, one of my favs!)


Enkutatash or Ethiopian New Year is celebrated on September 11th according to the Western or Gregorian calendar. Ethiopia still follows the Orthodox Julian calendar which consists of 12 months of 30 days and a 13th month, Pagume, of five or six days, depending on whether or not it is a leap year. The Ethiopian calendar is seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian calendar, so September 2009 is Meskerem 2002 in Ethiopia.

Last year Jason and I were in Ethiopia picking up Isaac during this time. We actually got to celebrate the New Year at the orphanage on a day that we were visiting Tenaye. They had a special celebration for the kids. There was music and dancing and a festive atmosphere. All of the nannies were wearing beautiful traditional Ethiopian dresses and the cook had fixed a special bread, popcorn, and lots of traditional Ethiopian dishes. There was also a coffee ceremony. Something we noticed on this day was that the streets of Ethiopia which are normally bumper to bumper traffic and crowded with people were virtually bare. When we visited Isaac in the hospital the morning of New Years we were basically the only ones there. On previous days the waiting areas were full of people waiting to be seen by doctors or visiting patients. Also, the hundreds of goats and sheep that we had witnessed being herded through the streets earlier in the week were no longer there, just the hides. Sad, but a fact of life and at least the people got to eat a special meal. We will post much more next week on the official one year anniversary of Isaac becoming a member of the family. It is so hard to believe that it has been a year! It went so fast and he has changed so much!