If you visit this African country, you will take a time trip until 2017. And don’t be surprised if the clock freezes at night – it’s not damaged, the Ethiops are only 12 hours a day.
In Ethiopia, the year of birth of Jesus Christ is recognized as seven or eight years later than the Gregorian calendar used in Europe (and almost all over the world).
And it is not a mere curiosity: in this predominantly orthodox Christian country, due to the birth of the Son of God, the dates and hours are totally different.
“We are unique,” says Eshetu Getachew, CEO of Rotate Ethiopia Tours and Travel à. “We have never been colonized. We have our own calendar. We have our own alphabet. We have our own cultural traditions. ” But what calendar is this?
He is over 1500 years old, and follows the solar-lunar system. It is 13 months, 12 of them with 30 days. THE Last month has only five daysor six days in bisextic years. But the most curious thing is that, as Jesus Christ was born later to the Ethiopian, the country is still in… 2017.
If you want to celebrate the New Year Low-Cost, this is the country to visit: New Year’s Eve happens on a day that for the rest of the world brings bad memories- September 11 (And in the bisexte years this date changes, and is celebrated on September 12).
At night there are no hours (literally)
Photographer Abel Gashaw usually travels, and used to switch between the two calendars, although he considers that the ethiopian makes more sense.
Explains that, At night, there are no hours. Literally. The day starts at 1 am – only for the rest of the world it’s 7 am. The hours only exist when the sun exists. As the country is close to Ecuador, there is no great oscillation between the hours when the sun is born, so the first hour of the day is our 7 am
“To be honest, I don’t know why European time changes at midnight,” says Gashaw. “Because everyone is sleeping.” But for those who live in the “two worlds” life is confused.
“When I buy a plane ticket, airlines use the European calendar, then I check three or four times to understand my time,” he says.
But “Ethiopia is a very Christian country conservativewhere most of the 130 million people don’t care about the rest of the world, ”so if he is there, when he asks the time doesn’t be done -” they say the time … Sometimes they don’t even know that there is another way to tell time. “
