Addis Ababa, September 11, 2026 (FMC) — Ethiopia has ushered in 2019 E.C., opening a new chapter with Enkutatash—the Ethiopian New Year—bringing together a deep sense of history, enduring traditions, family and community, and hopes for a peaceful and prosperous year ahead.
Observed on Meskerem 1, Enkutatash marks the beginning of the Ethiopian calendar year. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Ethiopian calendar comprises 12 months of 30 days each followed by Pagume, a short 13th month that brings the year to its close. September’s familiar yellow Adey Abeba flowers, the changing landscape after the rainy season, and the gathering of families have become enduring symbols of the transition from one year to another.
But Enkutatash is more than the turning of a calendar page. It is a moment in which Ethiopia’s past and future meet.
Across generations, the New Year has carried traditions of visiting relatives and neighbours, sharing meals, exchanging good wishes and welcoming renewal. Children dressed in new clothes sing and offer flowers, while families gather around food, conversation and the warmth of home. In many communities, religious observance also forms an important part of the occasion, reflecting the place of faith within Ethiopia’s social and cultural life.
The meaning of renewal also resonates with the country’s long historical memory. Ethiopia enters the new year carrying a heritage shaped by its own calendar, languages, faiths, traditions and institutions, as well as a history marked by achievements and periods of hardship. In his New Year message, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reflected on that passage of time through the image of a book whose pages are limited, urging Ethiopians to consider what the country has written in its past and what it will add to the pages ahead.
That reflection placed the arrival of 2019 within a broader national question: what kind of future will Ethiopia build from the history it has inherited?
For the Prime Minister, the answer lies in moving the country forward through ideas, dialogue and productive endeavour rather than violence. Looking to the new year, he envisioned wider political space, stronger comprehensive sovereignty, greater multinational unity and rising productivity, alongside a more firmly established leadership role for Ethiopia in the region and Africa.
He also linked the year ahead to the outcomes of the National Dialogue, saying its conclusions should be translated into practical forms—from culture and institutions to laws, reforms, reconciliation and other mechanisms for shaping the country’s future. He called on political parties, intellectuals, religious leaders, the private sector, farmers and pastoralists, youth and women to contribute to that process.
At the heart of that appeal was a clear departure from the conflicts that have repeatedly interrupted Ethiopia’s history. The Prime Minister said the country’s future should be written through ideas and dialogue rather than guns and force, presenting the new year as an opportunity to open another chapter in Ethiopia’s long story.
His message also pointed to the country’s efforts to strengthen self-reliance and productive capacity, highlighting developments in agriculture, the Green Legacy Initiative, manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, digital transformation, exports and other sectors. He connected these efforts to a broader ambition of strengthening Ethiopia’s sovereignty and creating prosperity that can reach beyond the present generation.
The President’s New Year message similarly placed the transition into 2019 within a spirit of renewal, expressing hope that the country would consolidate the positive journey begun through dialogue and that the year would bring peace, love, unity and success.
Messages from religious leaders added another dimension to the occasion, emphasizing the values of peace, unity, forgiveness, hope and responsible coexistence that have long accompanied Ethiopia’s New Year observance.
Together, the messages reflect something larger than a collection of official greetings. They speak to the meaning attached to the passage from one year to another in a society where history, faith, family and national identity remain closely intertwined.
For Ethiopia, 2019 begins at a moment when the country is seeking to carry forward major national undertakings while turning the lessons of the past into a more peaceful and productive future.
The flowers of the new season, the songs of children, the gathering of families and the exchange of blessings give Enkutatash its familiar warmth. Yet beneath those traditions lies a deeper idea that has endured across generations: a new year offers not simply another measure of time, but another opportunity to begin again.
As Ethiopia turns the page to 2019, that sense of renewal is being expressed both in the quiet traditions of households and communities and in a national aspiration to write the next chapter through peace, unity, sovereignty and shared progress.