Cultural journeys
The rains end, yellow daisies cover the hills, and on 12 September 2027 Ethiopia begins the year 2020.
Overview
Ethiopia keeps its own calendar: twelve months of 30 days and a thirteenth of five or six. On 12 September 2027 it turns to the year 2020. The long rains are ending, and the hills above Addis Ababa go yellow with adey abeba, the daisy that gives the season its colour. Girls in new dresses go door to door singing “Abebayehosh”, and the largest crowds climb Entoto to the church of Raguel.
The days are easy: a city tour, a neighbourhood fire on New Year’s Eve, a holiday table. Meskel follows 16 days later.
Itinerary
Your guide meets you at Bole International Airport on Thursday 9 September. Over a welcome dinner, we explain why Ethiopia is seven to eight years behind the rest of the world, why its clock starts the day at dawn, and what the next four days hold.
The morning starts in the National Museum’s human-origins gallery, with casts of Lucy (3.2 million years old) and Selam, the child found at Dikika (about 3.3 million years old), then moves to Haile Selassie’s tomb at Holy Trinity Cathedral. In the afternoon Merkato is packed with families buying sheep, chickens and yellow daisies for the holiday.
We drive up to Entoto, where the slopes are yellow with adey abeba and Menelik II’s church of Entoto Maryam looks over the city. After dark we join a neighbourhood as families light bundled sticks outside their homes to see the old year out.
We start early at the church of Raguel on Entoto, the city’s largest New Year gathering. Back in town, girls go from house to house singing “Abebayehosh” for small gifts. The afternoon is for a holiday lunch of doro wat and injera, and coffee.
A slow breakfast on the second day of the Ethiopian year 2020, a farewell coffee ceremony, then a transfer to Bole for your flight, or on to our Meskel departure.
Itineraries can change with weather, road and flight conditions. We will tell you promptly if they do.
Gallery
Photo: Unsplash
Good to know
Dress code: Shoulders and knees covered at churches; women may want a light scarf.
This tour follows the Strict policy. Days are whole calendar days before departure.
| When you cancel | What you get back |
|---|---|
| 30 or more days before departure | 50% refund |
| Fewer than 30 days before departure | No refund |
Questions
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