Why does my recent letter from my Ethiopian sponsored child have such an old date?
The official calendar in Ethiopia is different to the Gregorian calendar used by most other countries, including Australia. Ethiopia uses a solar calendar based on the time it takes for the earth to make one complete orbit of the sun. The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months: the first 12 months have 30 days each and the thirteenth month has five days, or six in a leap year.
This means there is a gap of seven to eight years between the Ethiopian calendar and the calendar used in Australia. For example, the year 2022 in the Gregorian calendar is actually 2014 in the Ethiopian calendar.
If you sponsor or correspond with a child in Ethiopia, you might notice that their letters are dated seven or eight years behind. Rest assured that the letter you have received is current and has been dated according to the Ethiopian calendar.
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