Eid Mubarak and Melkam Addis Amet

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan comes to a close today. It is the most important holiday of the year for Muslims, called Eid ul Fitr. Around 7 am, I heard chanting outside my window. Looking out, I saw a group of about 50 people. The men were wearing matching tee-shirts and the women wearing chador. They were doing a morning Eid prayer, chanting "God is Great" seven times. Also, this year, due the Islamic and Ethiopian calendars, Friday is both Eid ul Fitr (for Muslims) and the Ethiopian New Year's Eve (for Christians).

The calendar year in Ethiopia is behind the Gregorian calendar due to an eight-year difference in calculations for the birth of Christ. Europeans adopted calculations made by Dionysius in 525 AD, whereas Ethiopians stuck with the date given by Annianus of Alexandria over a hundred years earlier.

The other day I was speaking to one of the attendants at the hotel and he said excitedly, "I can't believe it is almost New Year's," and then, with a huge grin on his face, "It's going to be 2003!!" When he said the year, he dragged out the words, savoring each syllable, "Two, thou, sand and"...then rolling the "R", "thr-r-r-ree!!! Wow!"