Ethiopian Christmas on January 7, 2025. Islamic Eid El Fitr March 31 and Christian Easter on 20th April 2025
As Christians around the world celebrated their Christmas on the 25th and 26th of December 2024, the Ethiopian Christmas comes up two weeks later on January 7, 2025.
The Ethiopian Christmas is celebrated on the 7th day of January or Tahsas 29 in the Ethiopian calendar, observed as the day that Jesus was born.
The Ethiopian Christmas is observed alongside the Orthodox Churches in Russia, Greek, Eritrea and Serbia, though also gets celebrated by the mainstream Catholic and Protestant denominations in the country.
As the world ushers into the New Year on the first day of January 2025, Bulgaria and Romania will on the same date finalize the process of joining the Schengen Area, lifting land border controls.
The Muslim Holiday, Eid El Fitr on the Other Hand comes up much earlier in 2025, expected to be observed from March 30 and 31.
Addis Ababa will also observe the Islamic Eid El Fitr Festival on the 31st of March 2025.
But while around the World the Eid El Fitr 2025 is expected to be celebrated on Sunday, 30th of March, 2025, the exact date is subject to the sighting of the moon of Shawwal, 1446, the 10th month of the Islamic Calendar.
Three weeks later, Christians around the world, including those in Ethiopia will be observing Good Friday which comes up on the 18th of April 2025.
For the mainstream Christendom communities, Good Friday will be preceded by the Passover feast, in the evening of Thursday, April 17.
Christians in Tanzania, East Africa and the rest of the world on the other hand will be celebrating Easter holidays on Sunday, April 20 and Monday April 21, 2025.
The Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha for the year 2025 should be observed on the sundown of Friday, the 6th of June ending at sundown on Saturday, the 7th of June 2025.
Eid al-Adha is held around the 10th to the 13th days of the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah and the festival is marked to commemorate Ibrahim’s sacrifice of his son Ishmael to God.