Ethiopian Calendar Converter
Convert any date between the Ethiopian (Geez) and Gregorian calendars, in either direction.
Calculator
The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months — twelve of 30 days plus Pagume, a short month of 5 days (6 in a leap year) — and runs about 7–8 years behind the Gregorian calendar.
About this calculator
This converter translates any date between the Ethiopian (Geez) calendar and the Gregorian calendar, in either direction. The Ethiopian calendar is a solar calendar descended from the ancient Coptic/Alexandrian calendar, and it is unusual in having thirteen months: twelve months of exactly 30 days — Meskerem, Tikimt, Hidar, Tahsas, Tir, Yakatit, Magabit, Miazia, Ginbot, Sene, Hamle and Nehasse — followed by a short thirteenth month, Pagume, of just 5 days (6 in a leap year). Those tidy 30-day months and the little leftover month are why Ethiopia is marketed as "13 months of sunshine". The Ethiopian year also runs about 7 to 8 years behind the Gregorian year, so when much of the world writes 2024 or 2025, Ethiopia is still in 2016 or 2017. Pick a direction, type a year, month and day, and read the converted date together with its day of the week. By default it shows today converted into the Ethiopian calendar, so it doubles as a "what is the Ethiopian date today" lookup.
How to read your results
The toggle at the top chooses the direction. "Gregorian → Ethiopian" turns a civil date (a birthday, a visa date, a ticket) into its Ethiopian equivalent, and "Ethiopian → Gregorian" does the reverse. Because the Ethiopian side has thirteen months, the month menu switches to all thirteen — including Pagume — whenever you are entering an Ethiopian date, and back to the usual twelve for a Gregorian date. The headline result is the converted date — its year, named month and day in the target calendar — followed by the day of the week, which is the same real weekday for both calendars because they describe the same 24-hour civil day. Ethiopian years are counted in the Amete Mihret ("Year of Mercy") era, which is why a present-day Gregorian year maps to an Ethiopian year roughly seven years lower. If you enter a 6th day of Pagume in a year that is not a leap year, the converter rejects it, because Pagume only has five days outside a leap year.
How it's calculated
Both directions pivot on the Julian Day Number (JDN), a continuous integer count of days that is independent of any calendar. To convert, the input date is first reduced to its JDN, then that JDN is read out in the target calendar. The Gregorian side uses the standard civil-date formula; the Ethiopian side rides on the Unicode ICU "ethiopic" calendar (the Amete Mihret era), the same implementation used across this site’s multi-calendar tools. Structurally the Ethiopian year is twelve months of 30 days plus Pagume (5 days, or 6 in a leap year), and a leap year is every fourth year with no centurial exception — the Julian rule — which is also why the New Year drifts between 11 and 12 September against the Gregorian calendar. The day of the week is derived directly from the JDN, so it is identical for both calendars. "Today" is computed at local civil midnight in your time zone after the page loads, so the default date is correct wherever you are without baking a build-time date into the page.
Worked example
Convert 1 Meskerem 2017 EC (Ethiopian New Year, Enkutatash) to the Gregorian calendar.
Enkutatash, 1 Meskerem 2017 EC, falls on Wednesday, 11 September 2024 CE. New Year in the Ethiopian calendar is always 1 Meskerem and almost always lands on 11 September — it slips to 12 September only in the year just before a Gregorian leap year (for example 1 Meskerem 2000 EC fell on 12 September 2007, because 2008 was a leap year). The seven-year gap here — 2024 in the Gregorian calendar, 2017 in the Ethiopian — is the everyday reason people are surprised that "it is still 2017 in Ethiopia". Converting the other way, a date in the short thirteenth month such as 5 Pagume 2016 EC comes out as 10 September 2024 CE.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it about 2017 in Ethiopia when it is 2024 or 2025 elsewhere?
The Ethiopian Church uses a different calculation of the date of the Annunciation (the Incarnation of Christ) than the one behind the Gregorian Anno Domini count, which puts the Ethiopian year roughly seven to eight years behind. The gap is exactly seven years for dates between the Ethiopian New Year in September and the following January, and eight years for the rest of the Gregorian year — so for most of the time you can simply subtract seven (or eight) to get the Ethiopian year.
What is the 13th month, Pagume?
Pagume is the short thirteenth month of the Ethiopian calendar, made up of the days left over after twelve neat 30-day months. It normally has 5 days, and 6 days in a leap year. Twelve months of 30 days give 360 days; adding Pagume’s 5 or 6 days brings the year to the usual 365 or 366. Pagume falls in early September, just before the New Year (Enkutatash) on 1 Meskerem.
How are leap years worked out, and when is New Year?
A leap year occurs every fourth year, with no centurial exception — the same simple rule the Julian calendar uses, and unlike the Gregorian calendar which skips most century leap years. In a leap year Pagume gains a sixth day. New Year (Enkutatash) is always 1 Meskerem; it falls on 11 September in the Gregorian calendar, except in the year immediately before a Gregorian leap year, when it shifts to 12 September.
Is the Ethiopian calendar the same as the Coptic calendar?
They share the same structure — twelve 30-day months plus a short five- or six-day thirteenth month, and the same every-fourth-year leap rule — because both descend from the ancient Alexandrian (Coptic) calendar. What differs is the era and therefore the year number: the Coptic calendar counts from the Era of the Martyrs (Anno Martyrum, beginning 284 CE), while the Ethiopian calendar uses the Amete Mihret era, so the two calendars are several hundred years apart in their year count even though the days line up.
Can I use this to find today’s Ethiopian date?
Yes. When you open the converter it defaults to today’s civil date converted into the Ethiopian calendar, computed from your device’s local time after the page loads, so it works wherever you are. You can then switch the direction to enter any Ethiopian date — including one in Pagume — and read its Gregorian equivalent and weekday.
Sources
Reviewed by the YouCalc Team · Last reviewed
Spot a translation issue, a calculation issue, or have a suggestion? Let us know.