Local Time and Calendar

Ethiopia is three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. The 12-hour clock is sometimes used locally and this can be confusing to visitors. The day starts with the sunrise i.e. the first cycle starts with “one O’clock” at 7 A.M. and goes on to “12 O’clock” at 6 P.M. The second cycle starts at 7 P.M. “one O’clock” and goes on to 6 A.M. “12 O’clock”.

Ethiopia follows a slightly modified version of the Julian calendar, which consists of twelve months of thirty days each and a thirteenth month of five days (six days in a leap year). The calendar is eight years behind the Western (Gregorian) calendar from 11 September to 31 December and seven years in the rest of the year. The Ethiopian New Year is celebrated on the eleventh day of September. September 11, 2007 or 1 Meskerem 2000 (Ethiopian Calendar) marked the beginning of the Ethiopian third millennium