Happy New Year to those of you living in the future
It’s 6:34pm on December 31, 2007. At least that’s what my watch tells me. But, if you were to ask a local on the streets of Addis Ababa, they’ll tell you that it’s 12:34pm on Takhsas 21st, 2000 – Takhsas being the name of the 4th month in the Ethiopian calendar. Confusing? It can be if you pay attention. And most of the time I don’t. I live according to my time, my strange faranji* time, where the new day starts in the middle of the night and thoughts of the new millennium are well in the past.The difference in the time of day can cause the biggest confusion. This is not exclusive to Ethiopia, either; I started seeing this in Tanzania, and it’s common to a lot of equatorial countries where sunrise and sunset times vary by only a matter of minutes throughout the year. In these countries, our 7am is their 1am and the start of the new day, just about when the sun is coming up; what I might call 12:00 noon, they’ll be stuck at only 6am. As the sun is going down, my watch reads 7pm, while others are rattling on about “1 in the evening”. Where it all can matter is if you show up for your 12:00 appointment 6 hours early. Or wonder why you have a breakfast meeting at 2:00 in the afternoon (when it’s really at 8am.)
The difference in the calendar basically comes down to Jesus, and a different interpretation of when Jesus was born. If you want to really know the details, look up Gregorian Calendar, Julian Calendar, and/or Ethiopian Calendar on Wikipedia. Get ready for your head to spin while taking in the details.
On September 12, 2007, in the faranji calendar, Ethiopia rang in the new Millennium, the year 2000. It was a nice celebration, with the entire city of Addis Ababa flourishing in the Ethiopian-cum-Rastafarian colors of red, yellow and green. Admittedly, it was a bit surreal screaming out “Happy Millennium” for the second time of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
The lights are still up from the Millennium, though not as magnificent with burnt-out bulbs on the increase. The holiday spirit effecting the Western world is conspicuously absent. As the New Year rings itself in, passing through the GMT+3 timezone, I’ll likely be sleeping, or close to it, getting proper rest for a full day’s work tomorrow. And, as I’ll be sitting at my desk at 3 am on Takhsas 22nd, 2000, those of you in Chicago will be reveling in the first moments of the year 2008, way, way in the future.
Have fun. I’ll be thinking of you.
* Faranji = Foreigner, but really it means white person. Every culture has it’s word for us. In Latinamerica it’s gringo. In Swahili-speaking Africa it’s mzungu. Here it’s faranji, and they use it more and louder than ever. This is, however, a whole discussion in and of itself, and is best left for another time.
Tania
August 26th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Hello my best friend I am just visitin the amusing web page of you it gives me too much comfort cool and wonder ful
why you donnot put something about south Omo people???
Fitretu