We are barely emerging from the holiday season here in Ethiopia, a time with tens of millions of Ethiopian Christians celebrated the New Year and Christmas holidays while hundreds of millions of people across the world did the same in line with their traditions and their respective national calendars. Although the holiday season is a time of joy and festivities, it would not be out of place to shed some ideas on why holidays are fall on different days in the eastern and western parts of the globe.
This year, the celebrations of Ethiopian New Year and Christmas took place on different days and years while the event, in the case of Christ’s birth, happened on a single day common to all peoples and cultures. Why is for instance Christmas celebrated on different days in different parts of the world while Jesus was born on a day that is common to all Christians? This is a question worth asking while the answer can shed light on one of the most celebrated historical and religious events that is observed on different days and months. For Ethiopians, the New Year falls on the 11th day of September while Christmas falls on 7 January (Tahsas 29 on the Ethiopian calendar) as the day of Jesus’ birth.
It is also worth noting why many African countries are adopting the European calendar while they have different traditions of their own for welcoming the New Year and other holidays. The answer to this question is not however very complicated. The British and the French have introduced Africans to their calendars as they have done with many other things during colonialism. Although Africans have ancient civilizations that are older than the Western ones, they were forced to adopt the calendars of the colonial powers who did not bother to know how African were counting time before the colonial era. From this, we may perhaps infer that the concept of time is not common to all cultures and that historical events have a role to play in determining the division and management of time according to cultural norms.
Europeans have adopted none of the African traditions, while many African countries are still counting the years in accordance with the European calendar which, like anything in Africa, was imposed by Europeans. There are two major calendars known to humanity so far. The first is the Gregorian calendar while the second is known as the Julian calendar.
Why calendars are different from one culture to the other although time has a unique, common and linear dimension in all cultures or traditions. This is also another issue that needs to be clarified and the relationship between calendars and cultures needs to be clearly established. “Calendars are different from culture to culture because, “different people have different concepts of time and of measuring time.”
The Gregorian calendar is “a system for determining the date that was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in the year 1582 AD. It is based on the movement of the earth around the sun (which means it is a soar calendar) and includes leap years.” On the other hand the Julian calendar is defined as a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year without exception. The Julian calendar is still used in as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts of oriental orthodoxy as well as by the Amazigh people (also known as Berbers). The Julian calendar was proposed in 46 BC by Julius Caesar as a reform of the earlier Roman calendar.
The Ethiopian calendar is based on the same astronomical calculations that lie behind today’s Gregorian calendar and its predecessor, the Julian calendar. However the Ethiopian calendar is closely related to the Coptic and Julian calendars although it is not exactly the same. Ethiopia has thus its own calendar that is also known as the Ge’ez calendar. The Ethiopian calendar is a solar calendar that also depends on the birth of Jesus Christ as well as the Gregorian calendar and but it is eight years behind it.
Ethiopia is also the only country is the world where a year lasts 13 months according to the very popular tourism advertisement that invites visitors to come to Ethiopia with 13months of sunshine. This was indeed a cleaver way of popularizing the country with something that could also be considered a brand name. The new Ethiopian brand name is “The Land of Origins” is broader and deeper as a concept than “13 months of sunshine” which is one dimensional so to say and indicates only the weather.
“The Land of Origins” represents not only Ethiopia but also Africa which is a continent where so many things originated from and spread across the world. Most importantly it is the origin of humanity thanks to the discovery of Lucy which is a 3.2 million -year old fossil skeleton of a human ancestor which was discovered in 1974 at a place known as Hadar in Afar region.
Ethiopians of all shades of religions and faiths are keen to celebrate holidays on the days and times established by their long traditions. While in Western culture the concept of time has a different implication in human activities, Ethiopians tend to downplay the importance of time as something that can easily be used and abused at will. In Western tradition, time is a precious reality that determines and shapes human life in many ways. Well-known Western adages about the value of time (Time is money), the precious nature of time, the rules against wasting time…etc. all add up to emphasize how precious time is in human endeavors.
On the contrary in Ethiopia, time is usually given much less importance so much so that many people do not even bother to know the time, day, month and year of their birth. That is why many people tend to define their ages in accordance with the age lines on their faces instead of referring to accurate data. There is also this notorious habit of giving wrong information on dates of birth to meet the age requirements while applying for certain jobs. This may be defined as adjusting your age to meet emergencies.
Ethiopian footballers and athletes for that matter, are allegedly giving wrong dates of birth, in the hope that they would be selected by clubs for specific competitions or tasks. The sad fact is however that their real age is exposed on the football pitch when their performances fall lower than expected by their official age. That is often why their true age is determined by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests that are usually used to prevent cheating. If you are over-aged, you are not going to performance at the top of your form and this can result in unnecessary burnouts or life-threatening injuries that are of course dangerous. The reason behind such mishaps can result from not knowing your exact year of birth.
“Killing time” is a famous pastime in our society. Many people do so many bad things just to kill time. Why should they kill time which is considered one of the most expensive assets in human life? Instead of “killing” time, they should perhaps read books, learn new skills or engage in sports activities to name but a few of the available pastimes. There is even a popular saying in Amharic about a man who allegedly said, “sira kemeftat lijen lafatat” or “let me secure the divorce f my daughter instead of killing time aimlessly”. The morale of the story is that even a wrong decision can be better than spending time without work.
There are so many “time killers” in our rural or urban communities who allow time to fly away while they are usually engaged in useless activities such as drinking, smoking and using narcotics all day long while they should have gone out and look for jobs that may be hard to come by for now. With persistence and efforts luck might one day knock on their doors to usher in a better life for them.
If you keep on killing time without interruption, it might kill you with boredom, lack of purpose, depression and the physical and mental symptoms when “killing time” a notorious habit, a hobby or a pastime. You keep on counting the years without realizing that your time would soon be up and when you wake up from killing time it may be too late to change course and adopt healthy habits. You may even forget counting your age and keep on living in limbo or like lifeless zombies.
A brand new year is generally considered a new opportunity for changing our conception of time which is a precious asset if properly used. For instance, we can make New Year pledges or resolutions at an individual or societal level. A New Year resolution can include such things as saving money, avoiding bad habits, hitting the gym or learning new skills. At societal level, New Year resolution can include working harder to increase one’s income, establishing good relationships with friends and families, marrying the woman of your life if possible or living with purpose and discipline or building a good family.
A New Year may also be a good opportunity for “time killers” to shed their bad habits, take their time seriously and do better in the New Year. Unfortunately time flies but we are unable to fly with it, at least metaphorically, in search of a better life; but we can certainly do better with time within our human limitations.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
The Ethiopian Herald January 14/2024
