Ethiopian Date Today
As of Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 11:33 PM, today's Ethiopian (Ge'ez) date is:
Today's Ethiopian (Ge'ez) date — full detail
- Date
- 11 Ginbot 2018 EC
- Ge'ez
- 11 Ginbot 2018
- Short form
- 11/9/2018
- Month
- Ginbot
- Year
- 2018 EC — Ethiopian Calendar (Amätä Mihret, "Year of Mercy")
- Gregorian
- Tuesday, May 19, 2026
- Current Ethiopian year
- 2018 EC
- Era name
- Amätä Mihret (አመተ ምሕረት) — "Year of Mercy"
- Year conversion
- Gregorian − 7 or − 8 (depending on whether before or after Enkutatash)
- New Year
- Enkutatash (እንቁጣጣሽ) — 1 Meskerem ≈ 11 September Gregorian
- Twelve months + Pagume
- Meskerem, Tikimt, Hidar, Tahsas, Tirr, Yekatit, Megabit, Miazia, Ginbot, Sene, Hamle, Nehasse, Pagume
- Christmas (Genna)
- 29 Tahsas ≈ 7 January Gregorian
- Day starts at
- Sunrise (not midnight) — and is counted from sunrise as hour 1
Why today matters
Today falls in Ginbot (ግንቦት) — the 9th month of the Ethiopian year and one of the most historically resonant months in modern Ethiopia. The month contains Ginbot 20 — the 28th of May Gregorian — celebrated as Ethiopia's National Day, commemorating the 1991 fall of the Derg military government and the start of the modern Federal Democratic Republic. Ginbot is also a month of agricultural intensity: across the Ethiopian highlands, the belg (short rains) are tapering off and farmers are preparing fields for the great kremt (long rains) that will fuel the main crop cycle.
"Thirteen months of sunshine" — Ethiopia's tourism slogan and a literal reference to the calendar, whose 13th month Pagume of 5 (or 6) days makes Ethiopia perhaps the only country whose year explicitly has 13 named months.
How we compute this
Ethiopian (Ge'ez) is a solar calendar. Each year contains 365 days (common); 366 days (leap) — structured as 12 × 30-day months + a short 13th month, Pagume, of 5 or 6 days, with each month averaging Exactly 30 days for the first 12 months. Years are counted from 29 August 8 CE — the Annunciation per the calculation of Annianus of Alexandria (era: EC — Ethiopian Calendar (Amätä Mihret, "Year of Mercy")).
The Ethiopian calendar descends directly from the Coptic calendar of Egyptian Christianity, with which it shares its 13-month structure (12 × 30 + a short intercalary month), its solar year length, and its Julian-style leap-year rule. The two calendars diverge in their era counts: while the Coptic calendar uses Anno Martyrum (counted from Diocletian, 284 CE), the Ethiopian calendar uses an entirely different epoch — the Annunciation as calculated by Annianus of Alexandria in the early 5th century. Annianus placed the Annunciation in 9 BCE in our terms, producing an Ethiopian year that runs 7 to 8 years behind the Gregorian year. This produced Ethiopia's remarkable position as the world's clearest "alternative chronology" — when the rest of the world celebrated the millennium on 1 January 2000, Ethiopia's third millennium did not begin until 11 September 2007. The calendar has remained Ethiopia's sole official civil calendar throughout its history, surviving Italian occupation, the imperial restoration, the Derg, and the federal republic. It is woven into the rhythm of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity — the year of fasts, feasts, saints, and the great Christmas (Genna), Epiphany (Timkat), and Easter (Fasika) liturgies all follow it.
Used by: ~120 million Ethiopians and Eritreans — plus Ethiopian Orthodox communities in the diaspora and the Ethiopian Tewahedo and Eritrean Orthodox churches worldwide. Regions: Ethiopia (sole official civil and liturgical calendar), Eritrea (used by the Eritrean Orthodox Church), and Ethiopian Orthodox communities globally.