The Liturgical Year

The Ethiopian Calendar

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's calendar originates from Egypt and agrees with the Coptic Calendar, though it differs in the observance of saints' days.

Key Calendar Facts

• Days per Year: 365 days.

• Leap Year: An extra day is added every fourth year.

• Evangelist Cycle: Each year in the four-year cycle is dedicated to an Evangelist: Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Luke's year is the Ethiopian Leap Year, which precedes the Western Leap Year.

• Months: 12 months of 30 days each.

• Pagumen: The extra 5 days (or 6 in a leap year) are placed at the end of the year.

Days of the Week

Chronology: The Era of Incarnation

The church’s chronology dates from the birth of Jesus Christ, known as the Era of Incarnation. This system results in a 7 or 8 year difference between the Ethiopian and Gregorian chronologies. The church also uses an Era of the World (dating from 5493 B.C.) and the “Years of Mercy or Grace” (based on the great lunar cycle).

Movable Feasts (Including Easter)

The reckoning of Easter (Fasika) and the feasts that depend on it is based on the system of Ammonius, determined by the Fast of Nineveh, which precedes the Easter Lent.

• Easter Lent: Always begins on a Monday. Cannot be before 1st of Yekatit nor after the 5th of Megabit.

• Palm Sunday: Cannot be before the 19th of Megabit nor after the 23rd of Miyazia.

• Easter: Always on a Sunday. Cannot be before the 26th of Megabit nor after the 30th of Miyazia.

• Ascension: Always begins on a Thursday.

• Pentecost: Always begins on a Sunday.

Religious Festivals (Ba’alat)

There is a prodigious number of feasts. The principal ones include the 9 Feasts of the Lord, 33 Feasts of Our Lady, and the feasts of the Apostles, Angels, Righteous (saints), and Martyrs. The Senksar is the book that lists the saints to be commemorated daily.

Major Feasts of Our Lord

1. His Conception

2. Christmas (Liddet/Gena)

3. Epiphany (Temket)

4. Transfiguration

5. Palm Sunday (Hosanna)

6. Good Friday

7. Easter (Fasika)

8. Ascension

9. Pentecost

Major Feasts of the Virgin Mary (Mariam)

The 33 feasts commemorate events like her Conception, Nativity, Presentation, the Flight into Egypt, her Death, and her Assumption.

• The 21st day of every Ethiopian month is dedicated to commemorating the Virgin Mary.

• The Feast of Kidane Mehret (Covenant of Mercy) is celebrated on Yekatit 16 (Feb. 24 Gregorian calendar).

Monthly Commemorations

The following feasts are celebrated on the same date each month:

• Trinity: 7th of each month

• Michael the Archangel: 12th of each month

• Covenant of Mercy: 16th of each month

• Holy Virgin Assumption (Mariam): 21st of each month

• Death of Our Lord: 27th of each month

• Birth of Christ: 29th of each month

Fixed National and Religious Feasts

Fasting and Abstinence

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church observes some of the longest and most austere fasts, totaling about 250 days a year, of which about 180 are obligatory for all the faithful above age 13.

Rules for Fasting

• Frequency: Generally 1 meal a day, taken in the evening or after 2:45 p.m.

• Dietary Restrictions: Total abstention from meat, fats, eggs, and all dairy products. They use cereals, vegetables, and other non-fatty foods. Smoking is a breach of the fast.

• Exemptions: No fasting while Christmas, Epiphany, and the 50 days from Easter to Pentecost are being kept.

Major Obligatory Fasts

1. Hudadi or Abiye Tsome (Great Lent): 56 days. The most rigorous fast, a test of one's Christianity.

2. Fast of the Apostles: 10−40 days. Kept after they received the Holy Spirit, begins after Pentecost.

3. The Fast Preceding Christmas (Advent or Sibket): 40 days. Starts 15th Hedar and ends on Christmas Eve.

4. Fast of Assumption (Tsome Filseta): 16 days.

5. Fast of Nineveh: 3 days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) in the third week before Lent.

6. Gahad of Christmas/Epiphany: Fast on the eve of these feasts.

7. Every Wednesday and Friday: Commemorating the condemnation and crucifixion of Christ.

The Holy Seasons

Advent (Sibket)

This season, meaning "arrival," embraces about 5 Sundays. A fast is kept during this time: the 40-day Christmas fast, a time for penitential preparation for Christmas.

Christmas (Liddet or Gena)

• Date: Celebrated on January 7th (Tahsas 29 E.C.).

• Other Names: Qiddus Bale Wold is another name. Gena is also a name for a traditional game played by men.

Lent and Holy Week – Hudadi and Himamat

Lent is instituted as a remembrance of our Lord’s 40-day fast. Properly observed, it is believed to nullify sins committed during the rest of the year.

• Lent (Hudadi): 56 days of rigorous prayers and penitence. On Saturdays and Sundays, people are allowed to eat in the morning.

• Palm Sunday (Hosanna): Celebrated with palm, processions, and special services.

• Holy Week (Himamat): The week of Pains.

  • Maundy Thursday: Solemn Mass uses unleavened bread. The ceremony of washing the feet is conducted.

  • Good Friday: A day of sorrow and desolation. Believers prostrate themselves in church from morning till 3 p.m., the hour of Christ's death. It is a special day for confession.

  • Holy Saturday (Qidame Shur): A day of expectation, when the "good news went forth."

• Easter (Fasika): The feast of feasts. Celebrated with incense, lights, and singing: "Our resurrection has come, hosanna." It is a day of spiritual and physical feasting.