By Abebech Tamene
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas on Wednesday – along with other Eastern Orthodox Christians around the world – on Jan. 7, some two weeks after December 25, when their Western counterparts celebrate Jesus’ birth.
“Celebrating Christmas on this day [Jan. 7] makes our church unique,” Abba Haile Mariam Melese, the church’s deputy general manager, told The Anadolu Agency.
Two main versions of the Christian calendar are currently in use around the world – the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, for its part, uses the former, introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.
The difference between the two calendars lies in the way they estimate the length of the tropical year, and how they calculate when Easter falls.
“The [Ethiopian] church follows the Julian calendar because it believes it is the most appropriate for counting days and years,” Melese told AA. “Besides, the Julian calendar is derived from the Bible; it is not good to deviate from it when counting days and years.”
Late Tuesday, nighttime masses were conducted at churches across the country. At dawn, a cannon was fired nine times to mark the occasion.
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