07/01/2024
Let’s feel good about Ethiopia. Found this list somewhere and edited it a little 🫣✌🏽😁
1. The Ethiopian calendar is different from the Georgian calendar.
Ethiopians also measure the hours of a day to a different schedule based on the logic that the clock starts when the day does. Obviously 😁
Ethiopia also observes 13 calendar months per year of equal 30 days, which is so easy to remember, and a 13th month of 5 or 6 days.
Ethiopia’s calendar is currently 2016. Does that make it 7 years behind the rest of the world. Or does it make the other calendars 7 years too ahead?
We also have other ways we traditionally count time and dates. A friend of mine Hiruy Abdu wrote a book about it ✊🏽😊🙏🏽
2. Ethiopia is the only African country never to have been under colonial rule. The Italians tried but failed with the great African victory of Adwa and were defeated by the solid Ethiopian forces. I wrote a song about that ✊🏽😊🙏🏽
3. Ethiopia has the world's oldest Bible and the most unique with more chapters and amazing churches, religious paintings, festivals and traditions.
4. Ethiopia is the source of coffee ☕️ and home to one of the world's best coffee. Many types, beautiful coffee ceremony!
5. According to some archaeological findings, Ethiopia is the cradle of humankind. Hello cousins!
6. In 1960, an Ethiopian named Abebe Bikila became the first Black African to win gold in the Olympics. He won the marathon in Rome while running it barefoot. Elelele ✊🏽
7. Addis Ababa's name translates to ‘New Flower’ in Amharic.
8. Ethiopia is home to some of the world's tastiest, healthiest and most diverse cuisines on the continent of Africa and around the world!
9. One of the biggest festivals in Ethiopia, Timket, is a three-day annual festival that honors the baptism of Jesus Christ in the river Jordan. It's one of the world's largest festivals that takes place annually that attracts millions of people from all over the world.
10. Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the continent. Ethiopia takes first place as the African country with the most UNESCO World Heritage sites. There are 9 total ranging from religious sites to natural areas. Among them are the Simien National Park, Konso Cultural Landscape and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela.
11. Over 80 languages are spoken in Ethiopia and English is used as the language of educational systems in addition to local languages which include Oromo, Amharic, Somali and Tigrinya.
12. Over half of Africa’s mountains are in Ethiopia. ⛰️ around 70% 🤯 Along with Ethiopia’s incredible cultural and historical significance, the natural beauty is in a league of its own. In addition to a gorgeous landscape of low desserts and volcanic plateaus, Ethiopia is incredibly mountainous.
13. Ethiopia is the second most populated country with more than 110 million people in Africa. The majority are under 25!
14. Ethiopia has its own unique alphabet system.
15. Ethiopian Christmas is celebrated on 7 January (Tahsas 29 in the Ethiopian calendar) as the day of Jesus' birth, alongside the Russian, Greek, Eritrean and Serbian Orthodox Churches.
16. Ethiopia was a refuge to the early followers of Islam and has one of the oldest mosques in the world.
17. Ethiopia has very unique and dynamic music, visual arts, poetry, fashion, and architecture across the nation!
Spiritually, culturally, linguistically, environmentally so diverse and amazing! So full of potential 💛🙏🏽✌🏽💛✊🏽 we have so much good and so much to offer the world!
PSA.
