Ethiopian calendar

The Ethiopian calendar (: የኢትዮጵያ ዘመን አቆጣጠር '), also called the Ge'ez calendar, is the principal calendar used in and is also the  year of Christians in Eritrea belonging to the,  of Eritrea and  (Evangelical Church of Eritrea), where it is commonly known as the Ge'ez calendar.''' It is based on the older Alexandrian or , which is based on the even older , but like the , it adds a leap day every four years without exception, and begins the year on  or  in the Julian calendar. The seven to eight year gap between the Ethiopian and calendars results from alternate calculations in determining the date of the  of.

Like the Coptic calendar, the Ethiopian/Ge'ez calendar has twelve months of 30 days each plus five or six days (usually called a thirteenth month). Furthermore, its months begin on the same days as those of the Coptic calendar, but they have different names, that are in. The sixth epagomenal day is added every four years without exception on August 29 in the Julian calendar, six months before the Julian leap day. Thus the first day of the Ethiopian year, 1 Mäskäräm, for years between and 2099 (inclusive), is usually , but falls on  (Gregorian),  in years before the Gregorian leap year.

Current year
The current year according to the Ethiopian calendar is 2000. There were celebrations when the new year began in Ethiopia at 12 midnight  on. The year 2001 will begin on, of the Gregorian calendar.

New Year's Day
is the word for the Ethiopian in the official language of Ethiopia:, while it is called Ri'se Awde Amet (Head Anniversary) in , the term preferred by the. It occurs on September 11 in the, except for leap years when it occurs on September 12. The Ethiopian calendar year 1998 Amätä Məhrät ("Year of Mercy") began on,. However, the Ethiopian years 1996 and 1992 AM began on 2003 and 1999, respectively.

The new years begin on September 11 or 12 as described above from Gregorian to 2099, but differently in other Gregorian centuries, because every fourth Ethiopian/Ge'ez year is a leap year without exception.

Eras
To indicate the year, Ethiopians and followers of the Eritrean churches today use the Incarnation Era, which dates from the or  of  on,  (Julian), as calculated by  c. 400; thus its first civil year began seven months earlier on ,  (Julian). Meanwhile, Europeans eventually adopted the calculations made by in AD 525 instead, which placed the Annunciation exactly eight years earlier than had Annianus. This causes the Ethiopian year number to be eight years less than the Gregorian year number from January 1 until September 10 or 11, then seven years less for the remainder of the Gregorian year.

In the past, a number of other s for numbering years were also widely used in Ethiopia and the Axumite Kingdom:

Era of Martyrs
The most important era – once widely used by the es, and still used by the - was the, also known as the  Era, whose first year began on.

Respectively to the western and Julian New Year's Days about three months later, the difference between the Era of Martyrs and the is 285 (= 15x19) years. This is because in AD, decided to add 15 s to the existing 13 Metonic cycles of the  Era (15x19 + 13x19 = 532) to obtain an entire 532-year medieval  cycle, whose first cycle ended with the year Era of Martyrs 247 (= 13x19) equal to year DXXXI. It is also because 532 is the product of the Metonic cycle of 19 years and the of 28 years.

Anno Mundi according to Panodoros
Around AD 400, an Alexandrine monk called Panodoros fixed the Alexandrian Era ( = in the year of the world), the, on 29 August. After the 6th century AD, the era was used by Egyptian and Ethiopian chronologists. The twelfth 532-year-cycle of this era began on 29 August 360 AD, and so 4x19 years after the Era of Martyrs.

Anno Mundi according to Anianos
Bishop preferred the Annunciation style as New Year's Day, the 25 March (see above). Thus he shifted the Panodoros era by about six months, to begin on 25 March 5492 BC.

Leap year cycle
The four year leap-year cycle is associated with the four Evangelists: the first year after an Ethiopian leap year is named in honour of, followed by the -year and then the -year. The year with the sixth epagomenal day is traditionally designated as the -year.

There are no exceptions to the four year leap-year cycle, unlike the.

Months
Note that these dates are valid only from March 1900 to February 2100.