Happy New Millennium!!

[Farin]

[big]Ethiopia Rings in the New Millennium -- in 2007[/big]

[smaller]September 12, 2007 SPIEGEL online[/smaller]

While millennium celebrations and Y2K worries are but a distant memory to most in the West, Ethiopia's unique Coptic calendar meant that it was their turn to celebrate the arrival of the year 2000 on Tuesday night.

Ethiopians celebrated the eve of their third millennium Tuesday with festivities which included a performance by the Black Eyed Peas in the nation's capital, Addis Ababa.

According to their unique Coptic calendar, which lags seven year's behind the more common Gregorian calendar, Wednesday marks the first day of 2000.

The country prepared for the holiday in advance, cleaning up Addis Ababa's streets by forcing out beggars and poisoning stray dogs, and replacing them with flowers and flags. A multimillion euro concert hall was also built for the occasion.

While many in the impoverished country criticized the government for spending so lavishly on the event, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said it would serve as a harbinger for good times ahead.

"A thousand years from now, when Ethiopians gather to welcome the fourth millennium," he said at Tuesday night's concert. "They will say that the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the end of the dark ages in Ethiopia."

While some events were free, very few people could afford the €123 ($170) concert tickets to see the Peas, which is the equivalent of two months' pay for the average Ethiopian. Instead, many people observed the holiday at home with more solemn, candlelit celebrations.

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[Kevin]

I also heard the power grid immediately went out and all their computers crashed and are now unusable - damn Y2K . It's the like the Dark Ages or something there now ... poor bug*ers !

Glad to see the Prime Minister was optimistic about the next millenium , though . Some countries need a break every thousand years ( tears ? ) or so .

[edna]

It was new year for the jews too... yesterday, it seems. Rosh Hashana... but they are in the year 5.000 and something (I believe...)

[Kevin]

Damn Jews ! Always trying to ' one-up ' or be special in regards to everyone else . No wonder they have enemies ! What's really interesting is that many of the most progressive and futuristic scientists ( at least in the US ) are Jewish too .

[MarcM]

Why is that "interesting"......

[Kevin]

Well , as usual , I've likely worded it wrong . I guess I meant to say this: ' new millenium ' is important mainly to Orthadox Jews , while the mainstream of scientific thought ( non- religious , simply objective ) comes from , in a large number , the same ' people of the book ' .

It really isn't a point at all - simply a difference between the two trains of thought . Too much 'Discovery Channel' for me , I guess .

[edna]

What´s funny is that Ethiopia celebrates the new year on the same day than Jews, though the year isn´t the same. There are many Ethiopian jews...

[Kevin]

You're right , edna - Ethiopia is very Jewish . They claim to have the Ark of the Covenant , the Queen of Sheba may have been Ethiopian , and many say that they are a missing tribe of Isreal .