Unlike the Gregorian calendar1, a day on the Geez calendar does not start at midnight. Instead it starts after sunset. This is because, like the Jewish calendar2, a day in the Ethio-Eritrean native calendar starts at nightfall. Support for this way of reckoning is derived from the book of Genesis chapter 13. It states that there was evening before it became morning, and thus was launched the first day of creation4.
The native Ethio-Eritrean day is divided into two 12-hour sets. The first set corresponds to night time: from 12 in the evening to 12 in the morning (6 PM to 6 AM). The second set corresponds to day time: from 12 in the morning to 12 in the evening (6 AM to 6 PM).
Since the Ethio-Eritrean society never industrialized, it was alien to watches and clocks until they were introduced by foreign visitors. So to tell what time of day it was, they had to resort to non mechanical means. Traditionally, in Ethio-Eritrea the time of day was figured out by measuring so many lengths of the foot given by the shade of the body on level ground5. At night to guess the hour they had to look to the moon and stars.
Reference Notes
- Wolfe, Brendan. The Gregorian Calendar. (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Accessed 01/18/2024. ↩︎
- The Jewish Calendar. Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed 01/18/2024. ↩︎
- The Book of Genesis 1:5-31. ↩︎
- The Book of Genesis 1:5. ↩︎
- Pearce, Nathaniel (1831) The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce. p325. Digitally printed 2014. Edited by John James Halls. Volume 1. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ↩︎