Festival Calendar
Time your journey to a feast day
Ethiopia keeps its own calendar, and its festivals are some of the most spectacular anywhere — processions, bonfires, all-night vigils and whole cities in white.
Through the Year
Living traditions, not performances
These are working festivals of faith and community, and visitors are welcome as long as they come respectfully. We plan festival journeys well ahead — rooms and good vantage points go early — and travel with guides who can explain what is happening and when to put the camera down.
About the dates
Ethiopia follows its own calendar, so feast days fall on fixed Ethiopian dates that can move by a day in some Western years. Fichee and Irreecha move from year to year. We confirm exact dates when you book.
January
January 7
Genna
Ethiopian Christmas
Thousands of pilgrims in white gather at Lalibela's rock-hewn churches for an all-night vigil, and at dawn the priests chant from the rock above them. The most atmospheric Christmas on the continent.
January 19
Timkat
Epiphany
On the eve, each church's tabot is carried in procession to water — in Gondar, to Fasilides' Bath — and after an all-night vigil the water is blessed at dawn. Colour, chanting and crowds in white.
Spring
Moveable — recently in March
Fichee-Chambalaalla
Sidama New Year
The Sidama New Year, its date set each year by Sidama astronomers who read the moon and stars. Families share buurisame — a dish of enset, milk and butter — and Hawassa fills with song and dance.
August
Around August 22 – September 1
Ashendye · Shadey · Solel
Girls' festival
At the end of the August fast, girls in their finest dresses and skirts of tall grass move from house to house singing and drumming — a celebration of girlhood known by different names across the north.
September
September 11
Enkutatash
Ethiopian New Year
The start of the Ethiopian year, as the long rains end and the highlands turn yellow with meskel daisies. Families gather, children sing door to door, and the country looks its greenest.
September 27
Meskel
Finding of the True Cross
On the eve, a towering bonfire — the Demera — is lit before huge crowds in Meskel Square, decorated with the yellow daisies of the season. Towns across the country light their own.
October
The weekend after Meskel
Irreecha
Oromo Thanksgiving
At the end of the rains, vast crowds in traditional dress gather at the lakeshore to give thanks, touching fresh grass and flowers to the water. One of the largest gatherings in Ethiopia.
November
Late November
Great Ethiopian Run
A 10-kilometre road race through the capital, founded in 2001 with Haile Gebrselassie, and now one of the largest road races in Africa — tens of thousands of runners, and a carnival atmosphere.
Speak With a Designer
Want to travel for a festival?
Tell us which festival and roughly when. Because rooms go early, the sooner we start, the better the places we can hold for you.
Or call us directly on +1909-450-7246