Happy Ethiopian New Year 2001!

On what is otherwise a very sad day in America, there's a reason to celebrate from the other side of the world: it's Ethiopia's New Year's Day for 2001.

No, that's not a typo--today is the first day of the year 2001, according to the Ethiopian calendar, which is based on the Coptic calendar system. Rather than me trying to explain this (and no doubting botching my explanation!), check out these descriptions of how the Ethiopic calendar system works. (Also, for adoptive parents who might be interested, the Amharic Kids website sells Ethiopian calendars and makes them available for parents to sell themselves as an adoption fundraiser.) 

And to celebrate the day, I found a beautiful collage on flickr from a user named mcandrea, with all her favorite ways to celebrate Ethiopian New Year:



"Celebrating the Ethiopian new year would not be complete with out a few of my favorite things:
~yeubaunna afeulal (coffee ceremony)- classic for every celebration!
~happy new year cake- yum italian inspired goodness.
~raw meat- is in an Ethiopian thing, Kitfo-Hollar! But these special huge cube are raw cow which are prepared especially for the new years.
(correction 2007- this meat is tre-sega, kitfo is processed)
~grass on the floor - the green freshness represents the new beginning!"
Happy Ethiopian New Year, everyone!

Thursday, September 11, 2008 | Labels: , |

 

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