Travel 7 Years Back in Time, for Real!

Now here’s a piece of trivia that will tickle every traveller’s curiosity—while it is 2019 in the rest of the world, it is still 2012 in Ethiopia! And no, it’s not because the country is stuck in a time warp. It’s because Ethiopia still follows an ancient Christian calendar that is at least seven years behind the Gregorian calendar that the rest of the world follows.  

The Gregorian calendar gained global dominance due to the prevalence of Christianity in the West and the colonizing powers of Europe. Ethiopia wasn’t one to toe the line, though. Fiercely independent, the Ethiopian church decided to adopt a calendar that is tied to Jesus’s conception, as opposed to the year of birth, which forms the foundation of the Gregorian calendar.

We know the math is complicated, but chew on this—if you travel to Ethiopia and back, you will have to convert your dates along with your currency. AND, you will instantly turn seven years younger! If you’ve been looking for reasons to travel to Ethiopia, this is a fairly good one.

If nothing else, travel to Ethiopia just so you can say, “Hey, I just travelled to 2012 and back. What about you?”