Ethiopian New Year

Yesterday was Ethiopia’s New Year.  Ethiopia works on a different calendar known as “Ge’ez” as opposed to the Gregorian calendar that the USA (and most of the world) uses.  Ethiopia actually has 13 months in their calendar because for the first 12 months they have 30 days.  They have a 13th month that has 5 days to make up for the “extra” days.  So, in Ethiopia I get to celebrate two of every major holiday.  Two Christmases, two New Year’s, and two Easter’s.  The difference in calendars can be confusing.  When you ask someone for their birthday or when getting dates on receipts it is often confusing.  As if the calendars didn’t make things confusing, I also have to deal with different clocks here in Ethiopia.  Instead of their new day starting at midnight like I am used to their new day starts at 7am.  So if an Ethiopian says a program starts at 1pm you have to ask them “ferenji or habesha time” to know if you should show up at 1pm or 7pm according to your clock.  So confusing!

Anywhoo, we had a lot of fun celebrating New Year’s.  We went for brunch at the Tiatia’s house and then we had dinner at the BCI foster home at 4pm.  Ethiopians really put a lot into their holidays.  I love that they are so rich in culture.  One of the coolest ways that they celebrate is that boys go around from house to house singing for money (kind of like trick-or-treating).  It was cool to see and hear singing everywhere we went.

The New Year was really special because it was our first holiday as a new family.  It was cool to look back at this time last year and see how much our lives have changed (which it pretty much changed in every way).

But after all of the celebrations and good times Mussie and I ended our night with how I have ended every September 11th since September 11, 2001.  A few weeks after September 11th CNN was selling DVDs called “America Remembers”.  I bought one of them and every September 11th since I have watched it.  I never want to forget that day.  Not in a morbid way but as a small way to keep the memory of those victims alive.

I remember that day like it was yesterday.  I lived in the Baltimore area and my mom and step-dad lived about 20 mins outside of DC in Maryland.  I remember getting ready for class that morning and seeing on TV that the first plane hit.  Like most everyone else, thinking it was an accident, I went to school and then heard about the second plane.  My mom worked a few miles from the pentagon and my step-dad worked in DC so sheer panic set in.  I couldn’t reach them on the phone right away because the phone systems were completely overwhelmed.  I didn’t know what to do with myself so I started driving to work only to realize that I would be heading in the direction of Camp David so I turned around and went home.

It was cool to watch the DVD with Mussie last night because I was able to tell him about the experiences of that day, weeks, and months to follow.  It was also cool to hear how the Ethiopian people reacted to the news.  They were celebrating New Year’s and around 4pm the word started to spread that America was attacked.  He said that their New Year’s pretty much came to a halt while most Ethiopians spent the rest of the evening watching the news and praying for America.

September 11th is now a weird day for me.  A day of New Year’s celebrations and a day of rememberance for the loss of innocence that hit my home country.