Happy New Year!

(Melkam Addis Amet) - By Samuel Gebru

Dear friends, it is Ethiopian New Year!

Every year on September 11, Ethiopians celebrate the Ethiopian New Year in Addis Ababa and beyond! Ethiopian New Year, which is called "Enkutatash" does not have any religious significance but more historical. You see, the word Enkutatash means "gift of jewels" and it corresponds to when the Queen of Sheba, Queen Makeda, returned to Axum (ancient kingdom of Ethiopia) from her expensive and enlightening trek to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon. Accordingly, the Queen's loyal subjects and court officers presented to the queen gifts of jewels like gold, diamonds, myrrh, etc. This is now celebrated also by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, however, it does not have roots in religion. One unique thing about "the Ethiopian calendar" is that it follows the ancient Julian calendar which is 7-8 years behind the Gregorian calendar which the rest of the world uses, like America, Asia and Europe. Ethiopia is probably the only country that stayed with the Julian calendar and the reason why is as follows: The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the dominant religious "institution" of Ethiopia believes that Christ was born 5,500 years after the creation of the earth by God and so we calculate our years according to his birth. This is the same in all other Oriental Orthodox Churches like the Coptic (Egyptian) Orthodox Church. So, now, it will be the year 1999 in Ethiopia, on September 11. Another interesting thing is that Ethiopia has a unique form of months. In Ethiopia, we have 13 months, 12 consisting of 30 days and a 13th month consisting of 5 days or 6 on a leap year. The beginning of the year is Meskerem 1 which is September 11.

Although September 11 is also the anniversary of the Terrorist Attacks on the US in 2001, Ethiopia, its people and government, express their condolence to the US people and government over what happened by so called followers of Islam in 2001. As our commitment to fostering our 100+ years of foreign relations, the-then Addis Ababa Mayor, Lord Mayor Honorable Mr. Arkebe Oqubay and the-then US Ambassador Ex. and Plen., H.E. Ms. Aurelia Brazeal, in front of H.E. Lt. Mr. Girma Woldegiorgis (current president of Ethiopia) opened the Ethiopia-US Friendship Park in memoriam of the 9/11/2001 victims. This friendship park, which I personally visited on my most recent trip to Ethiopia (August 7-14, 2006) is set on the summit of Mount Entoto, which is the highest mountain and establishment point of Addis Ababa. There is a wonderful semi-circle that is planted with 3,000 indigenous seedlings, one for every life lost in the US attacks, that is around the memorial itself. On the memorial, there is a plaque that gives more description about the memorial park. It has about 4-6 benches and when the flowers bloom, the whole memorial will look wonderful, as it also gives a perfect extraordinary birds-eye view of Addis Ababa from God-knows-how-many meters up!

So, from Ethiopia to America, we wish best luck on recovering from 9/11. For the meantime, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

PS: ENKUTATASH 2000 will be held in Ethiopia next year and we invite all to attend. But buy tickets now, they will go out immediately next year and airline companies going to Addis Ababa will take advantage and raise prices.

YOU ARE INVITED!