Enkutatash is the Ethiopian calendar festival marking the start of the New Year, usually on September 11.
Enkutatash means “gift of jewels” in Amharic and is celebrated on the first day of the Ethiopian month of Mäskäräm. In the Gregorian calendar, it normally falls on September 11, moving to September 12 in the year before a Gregorian leap year because of the calendars' different structures.
The festival combines religious and seasonal traditions. Churches hold services, families gather, and children may sing songs and give flowers or painted pictures to neighbors. The timing coincides with the end of the main rainy season in much of Ethiopia, when the landscape is associated with fresh growth.
Enkutatash is not Ethiopia's January 1 celebration because Ethiopia uses its own calendar for traditional dating. Meskel, which commemorates the discovery of the True Cross, is a different Ethiopian festival held later in September.