Henry H. Ssali
16 September 2007
Ethiopia is a unique nation. on my first visit to this country in the Horn of Africa in 2005, I was surprised to find Christmas decorations despite the fact that it was February. Having noticed that this was a laid back country, I thought that their festive season drags on until late February, only to be told that they had just celebrated Christmas a few days ago.
As I was still marvelling at this oddity, I was in for more shock when I stumbled upon a flyer announcing the 'Ethiopian Millennium' that was to fall more than two years later. As far as I was concerned, it was February 2005 and here were people still awaiting the year 2000! on probing further, I was informed that it was actually the year 1997 and I wondered whether these people were stuck in a time warp.
That is when I recalled one of the Ethiopian Tourism Commission adverts selling Ethiopia as a country with "13 months of sunshine." Uganda was using such phrases as the Pearl of Africa and more recently Gifted By Nature, so I had rubbished this as one of the exaggerated adverts meant to attract tourists until I learnt that Ethiopia really does have 13 months a year, with the 13th month lasting only five days.
I couldn't wait to celebrate the new millennium again, so on Tuesday evening; I joined Ethiopians living in Uganda for a countdown to the year 2000.
Dressed in their traditional predominantly white garb, the anxiety could be seen on their faces as they awaited the third millennium. They actually follow a slightly modified verÂsion of the Julian calendar while the rest of the world follows the Gregorian calendar.
According to wikipedia.org, the Julian calendar was a reform of the Roman calendar, which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.
Most countries in the rest of the world use the Gregorian calendar. It is a modification of the Julian calendar that was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named, on 24 February 1582. It has 12 months of 365 days with a leap year havÂing 366 days.
However, Ethiopia, the only African nation that was never coloÂnised continued using the Julian calendar and Wednesday was not only their New Year's day, but their first day of the new millennium.
At Sheraton's lion Centre where the Ethiopians in Uganda celÂebrated the year 2000, it was all joy and merrymaking. Ethiopian traditional music filled the air, the language of communication was Amharic and on the menu was the Ethiopian staple food injera, a spongy roll that is a consumed with spicy meat. Among the rituals of the night was the lighting of candles. Here, children hold canÂdles that are lit by elders to welcome a new year in symbolism of the old people giving way to the young ones.
At the stroke of midnight, mini fireworks were lit amid ululations from the young and old. They all poured onto the dance floor and it appeared none of them had the worries the rest of the world had when we entered the year 2000. There had been fears of the world coming to an end and all computers crushing, but since this didn't happen, the Ethiopians had no worries as entering a new millennium had already been tested by the rest of the world.
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