Ethiopian Date Converter
One day, read both ways. Change either side and the other follows.
How Ethiopian and Gregorian dates line up
Why the year is 7 or 8 years behind, not just 7
Ethiopia never adopted the correction that moved the rest of the world to the Gregorian calendar, and it dates the Annunciation differently, so the two calendars sit about eight years apart. The gap is not fixed through the year, which is where most conversions go wrong.
From Ethiopian New Year on 11 September until 31 December, the Ethiopian year is 7 behind. From 1 January until the next New Year, it is 8 behind. A birthday in Tir and a birthday in Meskerem fall in the same Ethiopian year but different Gregorian ones.
Thirteen months, twelve of them identical
Twelve months run to exactly 30 days each. That leaves five days over, six in a leap year, and those become Pagume, the short thirteenth month at the end of summer. It is the reason for the old tourism line about thirteen months of sunshine.
| Month | Amharic | Gregorian span |
|---|---|---|
| Meskerem | መስከረም | Sep 11 – Oct 10 |
| Tikimt | ጥቅምት | Oct 11 – Nov 9 |
| Hidar | ኅዳር | Nov 10 – Dec 9 |
| Tahsas | ታኅሣሥ | Dec 10 – Jan 8 |
| Tir | ጥር | Jan 9 – Feb 7 |
| Yekatit | የካቲት | Feb 8 – Mar 9 |
| Megabit | መጋቢት | Mar 10 – Apr 8 |
| Miyazya | ሚያዝያ | Apr 9 – May 8 |
| Ginbot | ግንቦት | May 9 – Jun 7 |
| Sene | ሰኔ | Jun 8 – Jul 7 |
| Hamle | ሐምሌ | Jul 8 – Aug 6 |
| Nehase | ነሐሴ | Aug 7 – Sep 5 |
| Pagume | ጳጉሜ | Sep 6 – Sep 10 |
The spans shift by a day in the year after a leap year, which the converter above accounts for.
A worked example
Take 29 August 2026. It falls before Ethiopian New Year, so subtract 8 to get the Ethiopian year 2018. August sits inside Nehase, which runs from 7 August to 5 September, and 29 August is the 23rd day of that span. The Ethiopian date is Nehase 23, 2018.
Run it backwards and the same logic holds: Meskerem 1, 2019 is 11 September 2026, the first day of the Ethiopian year 2019.
Leap years work differently too
An Ethiopian year is a leap year when dividing it by 4 leaves a remainder of 3. Pagume then has 6 days instead of 5. Because that extra day comes right before New Year, the following year starts on 12 September rather than 11. The year 2019 is a leap year, so 2020 will begin on 12 September 2027.
There is no skipped leap year every century, which is the rule the Gregorian calendar uses and the reason the gap between the two calendars slowly widens.
Reading the time as well as the date
Ethiopian clock time is offset by six hours: the day starts at dawn, so 1:00 in the morning is 7:00 by international clocks. If you are converting an appointment and not just a date, check both.