Solomon Inquai

Jan 28, 1999(EC)

Hectic preparations are underway in Ethiopia, both at the Federal and State level, to welcome the Third Millennium. What is more many of the States and towns across the country have designated a place for a Millennium park. The celebration will take place at the end of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st century according to the Julian calendar, on Ethiopian New Year’s day.

Come September the world could have celebrated it at the same time had it not been for a historical accident. We all recall that seven years ago most of the world celebrated the Millennium according to the Gregorian calendar. Did you know that the Gregorian calendar came into being only 425 years ago? The Christian world was using the Julian calendar up until 1582 A.D. This was more or less the same calendar that we use in Ethiopian to this very day.

The Gregorian calendar came into being at the time of Pope Gregory XIII of the Roman Catholic Church. It was based on the recommendation of a certain Aloysius Lilius a Calabrian doctor. The idea was based on the Pope's wish to be able to celebrate Easter at the same time; they thought was agreed during the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. The first council of Nicaea was in a way the turning point in the history of the Christian church. There were some three hundred Bishops at the council of Nicaea. They had come from all corners of the world where the church was active. There was some disagreement on Christ, but all except a few did not accept the idea, because it denied the divinity of Christ. The other thing was the issuing of a Creed that is universally known as the Nicene Creed. This was accepted by all but three Bishops.

The actual schism came much later. The Roman Catholic Church broke away from the rest of Christendom in 1054 A.D. But, in the initial years there was no change in the calendar. As stated above the calendar change came in 1582 A.D. The other justification for changing the calendar was that there were errors of calculation, because the Julian calendar was a lunar calendar. Yet the Julian calendar was made up of 365 days with a leap year every four years. What is more new year’s day was also changed from 1st September to 1st January. Briefly this is what took place 425 years ago. This is the reason why the world celebrated the Millennium seven years ago.

Yet at the beginning the changes were not readily accepted. It took time for governments and the churches in different counties to warm up to the change introduced by the Pope. The first countries to accept it were Spain and her territories, Portugal, The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and most of Italy. The new calendar came into practice on 4 October 1582 A.D. France followed suit almost immediately introducing the new calendar on the 9th December 1582. The table below shows when countries change the New Year date to January and when they accepted the Gregorian calendar.

Table 1

Country

New years day changed to January in

calendar changed to Gregorian in

1

Spain, Portugal and S . Netherlands

1556

1582

2

Venice

1522

1582

3

Germany

1544

1583

4

France

1564

1582

5

Dutch Republic

1583

1582

6

Lorraine

1579

1682

7

Scotland

1600

1600

8

Prussia

1559

1700

9

Denmark

Early 14th C.

1700

10

Sweden

1559

1753

11

Russia

1700

1918

12

Tuscany

1721

1750

13

England & Colonies

1752

1752

You can see it took nearly 200 years to adopt the Gregorian calendar. In fact Russia changed only in 1918 which is only 95 years ago. All the other Eastern churches, oriental orthodox churches (Coptic Egypt, Ethiopian, Syrian, Armenia) and the Assyrian churches continued with their own calendar. What-is-more the Eastern churches that adopted the Gregorian calendar continue to celebrate Easter Day according to the Julian calendar. The exception is the Finnish Orthodox Church. The Eastern Orthodox Churches include Greek, Russian, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Georgia Orthodox Churches, etc.

This I hope gives the reader a glimpse of the evolution of the calendar and why Ethiopia faithful to its long history as a Christian country is going to celebrate the Millennium in September 2000 according to the Julian calendar. It is a matter of history and a decision to change or not change. Ethiopia did not follow suit. It is among the few countries that have maintained their calendar to this very day. This then is the reason for the preparation to celebrate the Millennium now and not with the rest of the world seven years ago. Did you know that Ethiopia accepted Christianity in 320 A.D.?

It is only customary to have a New Year wish and to wish others well. This is going to be a special new year and I believe it calls for a special wish. What is your wish? I know it is too early to have a wish. After all we still have more than 200 days to go before the New Year. It is also ok by me if you do not want to tell me your wish now, that is if you already have one.

I do have a wish. I would also like to share it with you all if I may. I wish it will be a year when all antagonism and recrimination among all of us Ethiopians, where ever we live, is over. I wish that every one forgets and forgives what happened in recent memory, and especially at the time of the last election. I wish that all future elections will be based on understanding and good humor irrespective of what one believes or what side of the political spectrum one stands. I wish that all our interpersonal contact will be carried out in a civilized and dignified manner and no recrimination what so ever. I wish we agree to disagree in anything without having to revert to fighting.

Brothers and sisters in Diaspora come home and enjoy the Millennium celebration with family and friends. Bring the children and show them where their roots are. Come with an open mind to the New Ethiopia. Try to see as much of the country as you can while you are here. If you have been away ten years or more you might not recognize some areas.

The African Union member countries have voted that the Ethiopian Millennium will be celebrated as an African Millennium. I wish you all a happy Millennium celebration.