Time Travel

You’ll feel seven years younger in Ethiopia

We’re all used to resetting our watches when we land in a different time zone, but when you touch down in Ethiopia you’ll need to adjust your calendar too because it’s actually 2010. Unlike nations that follow the Gregorian calendar (the majority), Ethiopia uses an ancient system influenced by its branch of Orthodox Christianity. Its calendar has 13 months, with New Year’s Day celebrated on September 11 and Christmas Day on January 7. The issue of time is even more perplexing because Ethiopians consider the start of the day to be sunrise, so the time at daybreak is 12 o’clock. The time at noon is not 12 o’clock but 6 o’clock. So set your watch to local time and mentally subtract 6 hours to understand where you are in the day. And there’s no “am” or “pm”. Ethiopians say “8 in the day” for what would be our 2pm, and “8 at night” (2am). When arranging to meet, always confirm whether you’re talking Ethiopian or ordinary time, or someone will have a very long wait.