Holidays and Festivals

Estonia	Encyclopedia of Days	Falkland to Festival

Ethiopia

The People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is on the east coast of Africa. The Ethiopian Calendar consists of 12 months with 30 days each, plus a 13th month called "Pagume" of 5 days to bring the calendar up to 365 days. When the following Gregorian year is a leap year, then a 6th day is added to Pagume. The New Year (Meskerem 1) falls on September 11 (or September 12 following Ethiopian Leap Years). Since the Ethiopian Leap Day preceeds the Gregorian Leap Day by half a year, the holidays may occur one day later than given.

Ethiopian Month	Begins in...
Meskerem	September
Tikimit	October
Hidar	November
Tahesas	December
Tir	January
Yekatit	February
Megabit	March
Miyazia	April
Ginbot	May
Sene	June
Hamle	July
Nehase	August
Pagume	September

Battle of Aduwa Day, March 2. Commemorates the defeat of the Italians in 1896, and the resulting Treaty of Addis Ababa which recognized Ethiopia's independence.
Genna, January 7. The Coptic Christmas celebration. Coincides with the Orthodox Christmas.
Buhe, August 19. Celebrated by youths, who sing in front of people's houses, and recieve pieces of bread in return. They usually know an insulting song which they use when they do not recieve their expected bread. Due to differences with the Ethiopian calendar, this day falls on the 20th every forth year.
Martyrs' Day, February 19. Honors the many Ethiopians killed in the Italian invasion in the 1930's.
Liberation Day, May 5. Anniversary of the day in 1941 which ended five years of Italian occupation of the capital city Addis Ababa
Meskel, September 28. Ethiopia's observance of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, according to the Julian Calendar.
Popular Revolution Commemoration Day, September 12. Commemorates the overthrow of the Haile Selassie regime in 1974, and the establishment of a Socialist state.

Public holidays Genna, Epiphany (Jan 19), Victory of Adowa (Mar 2), Patriots' Victory Day (Apr 6), Labor Day (May 1), Good Friday, Id al-Fitr, Ethiopian New Year (Sep 11), Revolution Day (Sep 12), Meskel (Sep 28), Id al-Adha, and Birthday of Mohammed.

Holiday information does sometimes become outdated. If you find any errors, please send us corrections.

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