Islamic New Year begins from June 2026, while Ethiopia and Eritrea to observe theirs on September 11.
The Islamic New Year — also known as the Arabic New Year or Hijri New Year — begins on the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar.
The Islamic calendar is lunar-based and only 354 days long.
The Islamic New Year marks the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic lunar calendar. This occasion commemorates the migration (Hijra) of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CEa pivotal event in Islamic history.
The Islamic Calendar is Lunar-based.
This means that the dates shift annually by about 11 to 12 days compared to the Gregorian calendar.
Ethiopian New Year 2026
As the rest of the world ushers into the New Year from the first day of January 2026, Ethiopia and its neighbor, Eritrea will have to wait for nine more months before celebrating their own festive.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea be observing their New Year in September 2026.
To be precise, the New Year Holiday for the two African countries comes up on the 11th of September 2026, this date will be falling on Friday.
The New Year Holiday is known as Enkutatash in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia.
This day marks 1 Meskerem, the first day in the Ethiopian calendar.
Coincidentally this will also be exactly 25 years since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York in 2001.
The United States is likely to hold special commemoration of the incident next September.
As it happens, the Ethiopian calendar, which is also followed in Eritrea, is a solar almanac based on the Egyptian and Julian datebooks and which was brought to Addis Ababa by missionaries.
The Ethiopian year comprises 12 months of 30 days each plus a thirteenth month of five or six timekeeping days.
The 13th month in Ethiopia is known as Pagume.
The month was named from the Greek word epagomene, which means ‘days forgotten when a year is calculated’.
This extra month has five days or six days in a leap year.
According to the Ethiopian calendar, a year has 365 days, six hours, two minutes and 24 seconds.
Once every four years, the six hours add up to 24 hours and become the sixth day in a leap year. Once in 600 years, the two minutes and 24 seconds add up to a full day and form a seventh day.
Based on the Julian calendar basis, the Ethiopian calendar is currently seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world.
The new year term of Enkutatash means the ‘gift of jewels’.
It is said to refer to the Queen of Sheba returning from her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem in 980 BC. On the Queen’s arrival back in Ethiopia, her chiefs welcomed her by filling her treasury with jewels (‘enku’).
Celebrations for the Ethiopian New Year usually last for a week and the festive are always focused on family events.