Students in the Ethiopian diaspora reflect on the beginning of the New Year

Photo courtesy of Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25.
The younger sister of Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25 celebrates the Ethiopian New Year on Sept. 11.

By Cynthia Akanaga ’25

Global Editor

For Ethiopians home and abroad, Sunday, Sept. 11, marked the beginning of the new year — or Enkutatash in Amharic. For Ethiopians in the diaspora, celebrating Enkutatash looked very different from back home.

Ethiopia is one of the few countries in the world that makes use of its own calendar. The East African country uses the Ge’ez calendar, which is seven to eight years behind the Western Gregorian calendar. On the Ethiopian calendar, there are 13 months in a year. 12 of these months each have 30 days. The last month, Pagume, has five days — or six days in a leap year. This makes September, called Meskerem in Amharic, the first month of the year. Other than the unique calendar, September also ushers in the period of bright skies after a long period of rain.

Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25, a Mount Holyoke student from Ethiopia, detailed how Enkutatash is celebrated in Ethiopia. “New Year is certainly one heck of a time to be back home. The festivities usually start a week before the actual day. You would see the streets fill out with food, spices, cattle — you name it,” she said. “The already bustling Addis Ababa would even seem more lively than ever. The vendors will be filled with adey abeba, an endemic yellow daisy that only comes out during New Year.”

“You miss the smell and view of adey abeba — a unique type of flower that blooms for the New Year — and it’s not a surprise if your stomach sinks drowning in nostalgia ... You just let it be and let it pass with the best that [you’ve] got.”

— Salem Weldegebriel

She also described the Chibo, which is associated with the end of the rainy season. She continued, “Let’s not forget the Chibo. These are bonfires we light up on the eve of the New Year, symbolizing the beginning of a new season — bright and hopeful, now that the rainy season has ended. Gathered around with family and friends, watching these torches light up, it’s hard not to feel the flames of the new beginnings light up from within.”

Behind the festivities brought on by the celebration lies the overarching theme of hope.

Salem Weldegebriel, an Ethiopian student at Gustavus Adolphus College explained, “This celebration marks a new start. There’s this tradition done during the New Year’s Eve where a unique kind of amalgamated sticks designed for this very purpose are lit up on fire and family and neighbors would gather around singing the unique New Years song. … At about the end as the fire starts to die … everyone present takes turn in jumping from one side of the burning stick to the other. This action marks the transition — done with the old, and into the new. … That’s what New Year means to me. New chance, new everything. A new life awaits if acted upon.”

“New Year is certainly one heck of a time to be back home. The festivities usually start a week before the actual day. You would see the streets fill out with food, spices, cattle — you name it. The already bustling Addis Ababa would even seem more lively than ever. The vendors will be filled with adey abeba, an endemic yellow daisy that only comes out during New Year.”

— Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25

Asteraye further explained how much the New Year means to her personally. “New Year is literally the epitome of social events for me. It brings family members who might have not seen each for a while to come and visit. At the same time, it’s also a time for introspection, where I get to look ahead and make resolutions for the coming year.”

Weldegebriel drew the contrast between the celebration at home and here in the U.S.

 “Back home, … the very words trigger memory, a kind of memory that imbues ever fresh nostalgia,” she said. “The contrast is ever clear cause here there’s no chime of neighbors and family gathered for the holiday. … Here, the best you get away with is perhaps [gathering] with friends coming from where you come from.” 

She continued, “Here there’s no smell of coffee or freshly baked traditional bread, here there’s no smell of a rising incense from the coffee ceremony, here the best you get away with is perhaps a friend bringing you over some Ethiopian food from [an] Ethiopian restaurant and you gather to eat that and have a chat … and you miss it. You miss the smell and view of adey abeba — a unique type of flower that blooms for the New Year — and it’s not a surprise if your stomach sinks drowning in nostalgia … You just let it be and let it pass with the best that [you’ve] got.”

Asteraye echoed similar feelings of nostalgia. In terms of celebrating the new year in the U.S., she said, “We do try to create that sense of togetherness by hanging out together and grabbing some Ethiopian food on [the] New Year, but [it] still won’t feel anything close to how it is back home.”