By: Jim Taylor

Cultural icons


Last Sunday, we in the western churches celebrated the festival called Epiphany – which means “revelation” or “sudden comprehension.”

        Traditionally, it marks the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem, revealing that Jesus was Messiah for all nations, not just for Jews.

        But if you had been in Ethiopia this week, you wouldn’t have celebrated the Epiphany. You’d have celebrated Christmas. In the year 2001.

        To western eyes, the Ethiopian calendar seems, umm, well, weird. Christmas always falls on December 29, not December 25. But their December 29 is our January 7. The Ethiopian calendar also runs seven years behind our Gregorian calendar. Plus, it has 13 months.

        I’m intrigued by Ethiopian customs because our new grandson will be coming from there in about two months. Ethiopians speak and write the second most-widely used Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. Their alphabet is proto-Semitic – that is, its origins precede the Hebrew script.

        They also have their own unique clock. Instead of starting their 12-hour cycles at noon and midnight, they start at dawn and sunset. So if someone invites you for 3:00 o’clock, you’d better find out if they mean breakfast, or afternoon tea.



Out of step

Why wouldn’t Ethiopians change, to get in step with the rest of the world?

        First, I suppose, because the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily use our calendar either. The eastern churches celebrate Christmas by the Julian calendar, 12 days later than ours. Others have completely different calendars. For Islam, this is the year 1428. For Jews, 5768.

And second, because the Ethiopian calendar and clock have become cultural icons, sanctified by centuries of tradition. When that’s what you’re used to, you can’t imagine anything different.

        Until 1582, the Julian calendar dominated western Europe. But it had flaws. It added an extra day every 128 years. Over time, the shortest day of the year had moved into early January. Easter lost its relationship to the Jewish Passover.

        Pope Gregory introduced a revised calendar that put Christian festivals more or less back in sync with the solar year. By the time Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Wednesday September 2 moved directly to Thursday, September 14.

        All over Britain, people rioted, demanding back the 12 days stolen from their lives.

        It sounds silly, today. But some Canadians were similarly upset when Pierre Trudeau decreed that we measure distance in kilometres rather than miles. I still think in inches, not centimetres.



Personal investment

Of course, some Christians still consider the King James Version, translated from Latin in 1611, the only true Bible. Any other translation, they insist, distorts the message of God’s revelation – even if the new translation corrects demonstrable errors.

        Like the Ethiopian calendar, the King James Version of the Bible has become a cultural icon for many. It no longer matters whether it is right or wrong, accurate or flawed, culturally biased or culturally neutral. It must now carry the baggage of a particular people’s identity.

        None of us like change. Especially when it affects our identity.

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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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