Happy Enkutatash. You’ll notice here that I look a year or two younger.
That’s Enkutatash for you, the Ethiopian New Year, when the years just roll off you.
In fact seven of them.
The thing is that the Ethiopians are on a different calendar from the rest of us.
Theirs is fixed to the Julian Calendar from the Roman Emperor Augustus in 25 BC with a start date of 29 August J.C.
Which I guess must be September 12 in our money.
And this establishes the New Year on this day.
It is also associated with the return of the Queen of Sheba (I’ve one of them at home) to Ethiopia.
Following her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem in 980BC.
It is also a permanent fixture on our calendar in Dublin.
When Ethiopian Airlines, Meseret Tekalign, the Country Manager for Ethiopian Ireland and our friends from the Airlines http://www.ethiopianairlines.com invite us to share in their New Year feast.
So if you like your injera (flat bread) and wat (stew) which we do in Ireland and Britain. And wine (guilty again) then this is the New Year for you.
And you’ll also get to watch their traditional coffee-making ritual. Beats my spoonful of instant, hands down.
Every New Year’s Eve, or Hogmanay as us Scottishy type people like to call it, is a time of reflection.
And Ethiopian rightly reflected on this year’s plane tragedy while emphasising their commitment to passenger safety.
It is also a time for Enkutatash resolutions I’m imagining, and I’m resolving to get out to this intriguing and glorious ancient country.
Where they have nine UNESCO World Heritage sites.
I love Lucy
And a certain little lady, Lucy, the first human, thus called because the excavators were singing Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds at the time.
Like your Beatles? Here’s a treat https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/09/the-beatles-in-hamburg-with-stefanie-hempel/.
Like your Africa? Then here’s another https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/home/whats-new-pussycat/
And, of course, because Lucy is on the Coptic calendar she’s probably only about 40… and looking just as good too!
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