Home Studio v3

Day 19: A different kind of Christmas

24th of December. Christmas. Wait.. Christmas? It doesn’t feel like Christmas at all! The sun is shining outside, the temperature is well above 20 and there are no Christmas decorations anywhere. Not at the residence, not in town – well except some hotels and shops that sell Christmas-related stuff. After all, Christmas for Ethiopians was still a few weeks away.

Ethiopians still follow their original calendar, where as the Christian world has changes its system several times. In Ethiopia it is now actually the year 2001, and instead of this being the 24th of December, it’s the 15th. They will be celebrating their Christmas on the 29th, which is the 7th of January for the Christian world. I have to admit their system is quite clever. Each month has 30 days and instead of having twelve months, they have thirteen. The 13th month accumulates all the extra days left in the year, which is normally around five days, but that can vary depending on whether it is a leap year or not.

So how does one create a sense of Christmas around here? By decorating the tree of course! We decided to humiliate the garden pine by hanging miniature Santas, glittering balls and various other decorations all over it. I felt a bit strange because it seemed like we were the only ones in a Christmas mood, but how many times does one get the chance to celebrate it in warmth and sunshine?

Christmas here wasn’t really any different from what we would experience back at home, except no snow and for once I could skip all the routine stuff associated with this day and focus only on the essential; being with family, enjoying good food in candle light and giving presents!