Ethiopian time, explained
13 months · a 12-hour clock that starts at dawn · two liturgical computi on one page.
The Ethiopian clock: sunrise = 12:00
The Ethiopian day begins at dawn, not midnight. When the sun rises over Addis Ababa at approximately 6:00 AM Gregorian, it is 12:00 in Ethiopian time — the start of hour one. Counting continues through the day, so:
- 6:00 AM Gregorian = 12:00 Ethiopian (sunrise)
- 12:00 PM Gregorian = 6:00 Ethiopian (midday)
- 6:00 PM Gregorian = 12:00 Ethiopian (sunset)
- 12:00 AM Gregorian = 6:00 Ethiopian (midnight)
Tip: subtract six hours from the Gregorian clock (mod 12) and you have the Ethiopian time. The Today strip on the converter page does this live — you can watch the shift second by second.
Ethiopian time periods
A day in Ethiopia is split into four named stretches. Each block is six hours long and restarts the 12-hour Ethiopian clock at either “12” (dawn / dusk) or “6” (midday / midnight).
EAT hour
| Period | Amharic | Western (EAT) | Ethiopian clock |
|---|
13 months — and Pagumē
Ethiopia's calendar has twelve months of exactly thirty days each, plus a short thirteenth month called Pagumē with 5 days (6 in leap years, when the Ethiopian year number modulo 4 equals 3). The Ethiopian year runs roughly 8 years behind the Gregorian year, because the two calendars use different dates for the Annunciation.
Here is the full map of Ethiopian months to Gregorian ranges. These ranges shift by one day every four years because of the different leap rules.
| Ethiopian month | Gregorian range |
|---|---|
| Meskerem (New Year) | 11 September – 10 October |
| Tikimt | 11 October – 9 November |
| Hidar | 10 November – 9 December |
| Tahsas | 10 December – 8 January |
| Tir | 9 January – 7 February |
| Yakatit | 8 February – 9 March |
| Maggabit | 10 March – 8 April |
| Miyazya | 9 April – 8 May |
| Ginbot | 9 May – 7 June |
| Sene | 8 June – 7 July |
| Hamle | 8 July – 6 August |
| Nehasa | 7 August – 6 September |
| Pagume | 6 – 10 September (5 days, or 6 in leap years) |
The four Ethiopian seasons
Ethiopia sits in the tropical zone between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer. Unlike a two-season tropical climate, Ethiopia has four distinct seasons — named in Ge'ez and aligned with the Ethiopian calendar, not the northern meteorological quarters.
| Season | Amharic | Gregorian months | Ethiopian months | Character |
|---|
The season names come from Ge'ez and describe agriculture, not solar position — that is why "summer" in Ethiopia is the rainy season, not the hottest one.
Bahre Hasab — the computus of movable feasts
Holidays such as Fasika (Easter), Siklet (Good Friday), and Hosaena (Palm Sunday) are not fixed dates — they move each year. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church computes them with Bahre Hasab, a set of rules derived from the Julian Paschal cycle. Once Fasika is located, every other movable day is simply an offset: Siklet is two days before, Hosaena is seven days before, Great Lent begins fifty-five days before, Pentecost is forty-nine days after.
Between Fasika and Pentecost the weekly Wednesday/Friday fast is suspended — the fifty-day Paskha season. The status chip in the converter reflects this automatically.
Wednesday & Friday fasting
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church keeps a fast every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, from midnight until about 3:00 PM local time. No meat, dairy, eggs, or animal products are eaten on these days.
Why these two days?
- Wednesday — remembers the day the Jewish council (Sanhedrin) conspired to arrest Jesus and hand him over to death.
- Friday — remembers the Crucifixion of Jesus — the fast is kept in sorrow and in preparation for the Resurrection.
When the Wed/Fri fast is set aside
There are only a few exceptions where Wednesday and Friday fasting is not kept:
- The 50 days after Fasika (Paskha) From Easter Sunday through Pentecost, the whole 50-day season is a celebration of the Resurrection, and all weekly fasting is suspended.
- Genna and Timkat falling on a Wed/Fri If Genna (Ethiopian Christmas, Tahsas 29) or Timkat (Epiphany, Tir 11) lands on a Wednesday or Friday, the fast is broken so the feast can be celebrated.
- Other major feasts Meskel and the major Marian feasts, when they coincide with a Wed/Fri, are also treated as feast days rather than fast days.
The Today strip and the converter's Fasting row follow these rules automatically — click any calendar cell to see why a specific day is a fast or a feast.
Holidays on this site
- Orthodox: Genna (Ethiopian Christmas), Timkat (Epiphany), Fasika & Siklet, Meskel, plus the major fasts (Nineveh, Great Lent, Apostles', Advent, Filseta).
- National: Enkutatash (New Year), Adwa Victory Day, Labor Day, Patriots' Victory Day.
- Islamic: Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha (Arefa), and Mawlid — using Umm al-Qura approximations; actual observance may shift ±1 day by moon sighting.
Closed days (banks and offices shut) are marked in red on the calendar and collected in a strip at the top of the printable page.