How many months are in the traditional Ethiopian calendar?

The traditional Ethiopian calendar has thirteen months.

It contains twelve months of 30 days each, followed by a short thirteenth month called Pagume. Pagume has five days in a normal year and six days in a leap year. This structure keeps the calendar’s month lengths regular while allowing the year to approximate the solar cycle.

The Ethiopian calendar is based on the older Alexandrian calendar and is closely related to the Coptic calendar. Its year count is about seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar because the calendars use different calculations for the date of Jesus’s birth. Ethiopian New Year, called Enkutatash, usually falls on 11 September in the Gregorian calendar, or 12 September before a Gregorian leap year. The calendar remains widely used in Ethiopia for civil, religious and cultural purposes, alongside the internationally common Gregorian calendar.