In Ethiopia “why?” is usually a rhetorical question. Several times a day, despite a continuing determination not to, I ask “why?” Why did the power just fail? Why did my patient at a local clinic get an injection into each buttock when they only had a cold? Why try to build an entire railway system in one go rather than do a kilometre at a time? Why are side roads never connected to main roads with tarmac? Why lay pavements when the entire population of Addis walks in the road? Many questions; few answers. However one question I have been determined to answer, in order to inform you, faithful reader, of the reason, is: “Why was September 11^th 2014 New Year’s Day 2007 in Ethiopia?”

Chris and I first came to Ethiopia in 2007. We appear to still be here in 2007. Confused? Read on!

In order to research this mystery I needed the Internet. In recent days that has proved an elusive resource. First my clinic 3G SIM card packed up, then weird things started happening to the power supply at Bingham that means often we have little or no power and definitely no Internet. Then, I hesitate to confess, I used up my monthly 3G internet allowance on my computer by streaming the Monza Formula 1 Grand Prix. It was worth it (check out Ricciardo overtaking Vettell – I could almost hear Beth’s squeal of delight from here…) but by New Year’s Day (i.e. September 11^th) I had little means of researching the Ethiopian Calendar. I needed a solution.

Ultimately I have discovered, the reason September 11^th 2014 was New Year’s Day 2007 is all because of Jesus.

On New Year’s Day, fed up with no Internet, I developed an Internet access master plan. 3G SIM cards are now available again – first time since we’ve been here. So, go to the “Ethio Telecom” main office, upgrade our personal 2G SIM cards in our phones to 3G, and buy a new generation 3G USB stick that I can use on my laptop to get 8 gigs a month (enough for a couple of Grands Prix). Brilliant plan, apart from the ‘go to “Ethio Telecom main office”‘ bit. To cut a long story short I ended up with a SIM card for a new 3G USB stick that didn’t work, Chris’s SIM card wouldn’t work at all after they fiddled with it, and mine was supposed to be 3G but wasn’t. A second trip accompanied by Haile to interpret sorted out some of the mess made on the first visit, but this visit was prolonged by about 20 minutes as the Ethio Telecom main office wireless network crashed and no-one knew what to do so the whole place just ground to a halt.

To understand the Ethiopian calendar come back with me to 45 BC. Julius Caesar, being an omnipotent dictator, could do what he liked so he invented a new calendar, called it after himself (the Julian calendar) and imposed it on everyone. (You would recognise the Julian calendar – the month names and the number of days in them are the same as we use now, over 2000 years later.) He even had one of the longest months named after himself – July. He did it for a good reason though – to stop politicians randomly messing about with the length of a year for their own devious purposes. In particular as a year is a few minutes short of 365.25 days he introduced a leap day every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the sun (almost). Before he did this no-one knew what the date was; afterwards everyone did and it was so successful it didn’t change for over 1500 years. A few years later (in 25 BC) Augustus Caesar who was a god of course and could therefore do absolutely whatever he liked imposed the Julian calendar on the Egyptians who had a different one (the Alexandrian calendar). Augustus was a bit jealous of July, so he named a month just as long as July after himself (August). But to understand Ethiopian dates the most significant thing Augustus did was to fix the first day of the year in the Alexandrian calendar to 29^th August in his (the Julian) calendar. So from then on New Year’s Day in Egypt was 29^th August in the rest of the known world. And, nota bene, the Ethiopian calendar is effectively the same as the Alexandrian one, just with different month names. So in 25 BC the Ethiopian New year was on 29^th August. We’re getting there!

As I was struggling so much to get Ethio Telecom to give me stuff that actually works, perhaps I should complain? After all, that’s what a good British person should do, isn’t it? We’re constantly told we have too much stiff upper lip; too much “laissez faire”. We need to complain more! However, I might not get too far given the Ethio Telecom “Obligations of the Customer” printed on the back of my invoice. (There’s no “Obligations of the Supplier” anywhere). Firstly, in section 1.2 I am obliged “not to use the service for immoral purposes”. I wonder who is going to define “morality” for me? Then section 7.2 (“Warranty”) says “ethio makes no warranties of any kind what so ever expressed or implied for the use of the service.” I won’t write out section 9 “Limitations of Liability” but basically they expunge themselves of any liability at all under any possible circumstances. No matter what happens, they are not liable. Something as simple as the service not working or the kit being faulty is absolutely and definitely not their fault. So no, a complaint won’t help. Fortunately my clinic SIM card was replaced so I eventually had some 3G Internet to use for my research.

Fast forward to 1582. Pope Gregory XIII has a problem, and the priests were revolting. Easter was no longer near the Spring Equinox, because the Julian calendar introduces one leap day too many every 138 years. So by the time Pope Gregory issued his bull (nothing to do with the animals slaughtered and butchered here on New Year’s Day) the date of the Spring Equinox had shifted 10 days, to around March 10^th. This could not continue, so in his bull Gregory decreed that the day after Thursday 4^th October 1582 would be Friday 15^th October 1582 – he stole 10 days. The peasants didn’t like this – they though it was the elite classes trying to get more rent out of them than they should. However as most of Europe was Catholic they obediently followed the bull so it was hugely successful (it was also immensely sensible). Being Protestants it took nearly 200 more years until 1752 for Great Britain and our American colonies to follow suit, when Wednesday 2^nd September 1752 was immediately followed by Thursday 14^th September 1752. (The last country to fall in line was Greece in 1923. ^{[Citation needed}}) Also in his bull, to stop the leap day creep happening again, Gregory decreed that three leap days would be dropped every four hundred years. The date of Easter could now be in late March/Early April and not shift for a very very long time.

However, as I said earlier Augustus had fixed the Ethiopian calendar to the Julian calendar which has a leap day every four years without exception, and they stuck to it (they didn’t follow the Papal bull) so in Ethiopia leap day creep continued. Do the maths – by now (2014; over 400 years later) the Julian calendar is 13 days ahead of everyone else who followed Pope Greg’s bull. So as Augustus fixed the Ethiopian New Year’s Day to 29th August, New Year’s Day will now be 13 days later - 11^th September. QED, as we used to say in maths classes in Grammar School.

Well that explains why New Year’s Day is 11^th September – all because of the date of Easter. But why 2007? That’s much easier. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has its own way of calculating when Jesus was born. They reckon it was 7 years after the traditional date, hence we are 7 years behind the rest of the world.

So there you are! I answered a “why?” question. Why was 11^th September 2014 actually New Year’s Day 2007? Because of controversies over the date of the birth and resurrection of Jesus.

The net outcome? Ethiopia rejoiced, and we had a day off. As Chris said last week, melkam addis amet!