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Ethiopian calendar is unique: US scholarSubmitted by kashif on Wed, 2006-12-27 14:41. Science/Health Addis Ababa, Dec 27 (NNN-ENA) A renowned Ethiopia-born American scholar, Ephraim Isaac, says the Ethiopian calendar is unique in that it belongs neither to the Julian nor to the Gregorian calendars. Isaac, who is Director of the Institute of Semitic Studies in the US, said most scholars, including himself, believe that Ethiopia had retained the old Egyptian system of calendar. Historical literature showed that the calendars of the whole world are based on the work of ancient Egyptian astronomers who discovered, as early as 3,000 BC to 4,000 BC, that the solar or sidereal year lasted slightly less than 365 and one quarter days. However, it was left to the astronomers of the Alexandrian school to incorporate this knowledge into some sort of calendar; and it was these astronomers who also came up with the idea of leap years. Subsequently, the Romans, under Julius Caesar, borrowed from the Alexandrian science and came up with their revised calendar, which was adopted it to the western world. Then the Copts inherited this science as a right and built upon it themselves. In due course, according to the literature, the Copts handed this calendar, together with their method of computing the date of Easter, to their descendant Church in Ethiopia. Therefore, the literatures further said, the Ethiopian year has something in common with the western year, having been derived from the same source. Professor Ephraim also said that many people mistakenly assume that the Ethiopian calendar is Julian. “The Gregorian calendar is actually the revision of Julian calendar, which Pope Gregory edited or decided according to certain calculations,” he said. Months in both the Julian and Gregorian have 30 and 31 days, and with February or June either 28 or 29 days during the leap year, he explained, adding that the two calendars shared similar characteristics in terms of months and 365 days in a year and 366 days in each leap year. However, he added, months in the Ethiopian calendar, which is based on Mestehafe-Hissab (Book of Calculation), the derivative of the Alexandrian Jewish calendar, have an equal 30 days, and then Pagumen, which is the 13th month of five days, or six days in a leap year, he said. In addition to Mestehafe-Hissab, the professor said, there is a very famous book called, Mestehafe-henok, (The Book of Enoch) which is found only in Ethiopia with chapters that deal with some calculation of the years. As the same time, he said, there is still another book called Abushakir, which came to Ethiopia from Coptic Egyptian of Arab background. Above all these, he said, there is a difference of five years between the Gregorian calendar and the birth of Jesus Christ while there is only three between the Ethiopian calendar and the birth of Jesus. "Accordingly, many scholars, including I, believe that the Ethiopian calendar is much closer to the birth of Jesus Christ. And this is one of the many unique ancient heritages which Ethiopia has contributed to the entire world," he said. He also said that close to 2,000 African-Americans living in the US have been organising themselves to come to Ethiopia for the celebration of the approaching new Ethiopian Millennium in 2007. According to him, the group recently held a press conference in the US and informed nearly 20 giant media organisations to cover every news development on the celebration of the New Ethiopian Millennium. Click HERE to go to the source of this article. |