Why is the difference of our Calendar from that of the European?

It is because, the Europeans, under the influence and order of Gregory, Pope of the Catholic Church, in the 16th century, added, seven to eight years on those Biblical Age of 5500 years from the days of Adam and Eve to the Birth of Christ which occurred on Meskerem 1. The Catholic Church, following the conclusion of the scientific computation of its experts in astronomy, opted, of its own initiative and unilateral decision to change the then ecumenical and universal Christian calendar to which Ethiopia still adhere. That was why the new European calendar is called Gregorian, after its initiator the Catholic Pope Gregory.

The Ethiopian Calendar is the most ancient and the earliest in the world, because it follows the Biblical way of computation of time, i.e., the hours, days, weeks, months and years that originated with the Creation of Adam and Eve. As such and as it is based on the Divine Truth, it is an integral part of our religious belief that remains immutable.