May 21, 2007

party like it's 1999

there was a recent aticle in Time that once again reminds me that the world is a big, complex place. while at one time Ethiopia was probably best known for famine & despair and LiveAid (though i prefer to recall their great long distance runners & links to bob marley), come september 11 (yes, 9/11) they'll literally be partying like it's 1999 because in the Ethiopic calendar (also known as the Ge'ez calendar) it is 1999. september 11 marks the end of the 20th century according to their calendar. the Ethiopic calendar, which is kind of based on the julian calendar, has twelve months of 30 days each plus a "13th" month consisting of five or six epagomenal days (fancy way of saying inserting a leap day, etc to make a calendar follow the seasons or moon phases). and since i know you're dying to know, today, 21-May-2007 (gregorian calendar) is 1999 Genbot 13 in the Ethiopic calendar (of course icu4j has an Ethiopic calendar component).

and yes, even though it helps "date" me, i am still a fan of Prince's 1999.

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