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Uganda: 2000 Or 2007?
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New Vision (Kampala)
15 September 2007
Posted to the web 17 September 2007
Elizabeth Agiro
Kampala
As the Americans remembered six years since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Ethiopians were celebrating the eve of a new millennium and the year 2000.
Seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian (English) calendar, the Jewish calendar, which Ethiopians follow, starts its new year in September when the rest of the world is warming up for yet another new year.
Tuesday night at the Sheraton Hotel, where the Ethiopian community in Uganda entered the New Year, was filled with smoke both from the incense, which burned all evening, and the fireworks set off at the stroke of midnight. While most of the Ethiopians held up sparklers, there were three launch pads on the ground that shot the fireworks into the air, albeit not too high. Although the night started on a low key, with many Ethiopians drinking soft drinks and soft conversation all around, it gradually gained momentum; many ordered alcohol amid performances by Ethiopian musicians and crowned the night with a dance.
According to Tracey R. Rich of Judaism101.com, an online encyclopaedia on Jewish beliefs, the Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical factors: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the earth (a month); and the revolution of the earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other. On average, the moon revolves around the earth in about 29½ days. The earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.
However, Rich adds, the Gregorian calendar has abandoned any attachment between the moon cycles and the month, subjectively setting the length of months to 28, 30 or 31 days.
The Jewish calendar, on the other hand, co-ordinates all three astronomical factors. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.
The problem with using the lunar calendar is that there are approximately 12.4 lunar months in every solar year, so a 12-month lunar calendar loses about 11 days every year and a 13-month lunar gains about 19 days every year.
Unlike the Gregorian calendar, where holiday dates shift due to the length of the solar year, the date of Jewish holidays does not change from year to year. Holidays are celebrated on the same day of the Jewish calendar every year.
Rich notes that a year with 13 months is referred to in Hebrew as Shanah Me'uberet, literally: a pregnant year.
The additional month is known as Adar I, Adar Rishon or Adar Alef.
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But how do the Ethiopians communicate outside their country? Do they write letters dated 2000 or 2007?
Acting Regional Director Panos Eastern Africa, Dr. Konjit Sekade, says: "It is confusing sometimes, but we manage."
She explains that those who have never left Ethiopia refer to their calendar, even when writing to people outside Ethiopia. But the ones who are more exposed change to fit circumstances. "If I speak English, then I use the European calendar but when I speak to an Ethiopian, my mind automatically switches to Amharic (the Ethiopian language)," she says.
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