From Our Editorial Consultant

There is an English saying that “where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise”. We were reminded of this aphorism by a flood of letters opposing the adoption of the Gregorian calendar that was arriving at our office. This all springs from the fact that many people betray abysmal ignorance about the origin of the “Ethiopian” calendar.

According to scholars who had studied the obelisks of Axum, Ethiopia had a lunar calendar before the adoption of the Julian calendar in the fourth century AD. So it is only fair to assume that the Julian calendar of Alexandrian origin arrived in Axum with Christianity around 330 AD. So much for the “Ethiopian” calendar – that is, so much for nothing.

We concede that Jews, Muslims, the Chinese, etc have their own calendars. But there are no two Jewish, Muslim or Chinese calendars. But why should there be two Christian calendars – one of them being an incorrect one? Surely, to err is human; and Sosigenes of Alexandria had erred in devising a 365.25-day calendar by 11 in and 14 sec.

According to more accurate astronomical calculations made in the 16th century, the year was not 365.25 but 365.2421911 days long. Surely, the length of the year is not a matter of blind faith but one of accurate astronomical calculations.

And to claim that the Julian calendar is of Ethiopian origin is the height of crass stupidity. Even the dress that we are flaunting as “Ethiopian” is, in the final analysis, of Indian origin. The British are not ashamed of admitting that their pyjamas and bungalows are of Indian origin. Why shouldn’t we admit that what we call our calendar was devised by Sosigenes at the behest of Julius Caesar?

In his Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam does not claim that he had devised a perfect calendar. What he remarked in one of his verses was asking if the people had said that his computations had reduced the year to better reckoning – that is,  he was a reformer. And, what we need is a brave man like Omar Khayyam.  According to him, he did this by merely “…striking from the Calendar/ Unborn To-morrow, and dead Yesterday…”. Anyhow, where that calendar now lies, we ken not. It must have vanished into the thin air with the Zoroastrian faith in the 7th century under the onslaught of Islam.

And, talking of weights and measures, the British, whose change in tradition is always proceeding at a snail’s pace, have finally decimalized their formerly cumbersome currency; and metrication (including that of temperature) is now on its way. Remember that it had taken the British 170 solid years to adopt the Gregorian calendar. And, idle talks of even using the gasha and the kind! Muffin must be joking!

For official purposes, Arabs, the Chinese, the Japanese and the Vietnamese are all using the Gregorian calendar. Orthodox nations in Europe had been also using the Gregorian calendar since the day after January 31, 1918. Here in our own country, a hypocritical state of conservatism over a calendar that properly belongs to Julius Caesar is preposterous. The measurement of things – including weight in kilograms, length in metres, the year in the Gregorian calendar and temperature in degrees Celcius – must conform to an international standard for better global understanding. It is idle to pretend that the Julian calendar is part and parcel of Ethiopian culture and tradition – as some unlettered people are doing. n