If 2002 was a good year for you, enjoy it all over again by visiting Ethiopia this September. Ethiopians will be celebrating their New Year (Enkutatash) on the eve of September 10th. Ethiopians follow an ancient Coptic calendar which runs about 7.5 years behind the Gregorian calendar (which most of you reading probably follow). (Hindu's are way ahead of the Ethiopians by a few thousand years, and are currently enjoying the year 5109. Those who follow the Jewish calendar are in the middle of the year 5769).
The Ethiopian calendar is made up of 12 months, each lasting 30 days, and then an extra month is tagged on lasting just 5 days (6 in a leap year). Most of the world's calendars are in fact based on an ancient Egyptian calendar so there are many similarities. Ethiopia is 7.5 years behind the Gregorian calendar because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church didn't agree on the date of the creation of the world, so they started off from two different points many hundreds of years ago.
Ethiopians will celebrate Meskel as well in September, and other African nations also have important festivals going on. Click here for more on African festivals in September.
Image of Ethiopian Girl Celebrating New Year's -- Getty Images/Tim Boyle
wow, nice picture