The seasons, region by region
This is a highland-weighted picture. The lowlands run on a different clock: the Danakil is unshootable in the northern summer, the Omo Valley's roads are worst in the rains, and the south-west coffee forests are wettest when the highlands are driest.
| Period | Conditions | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| October – December | Dry, clear, green after the rains, strong light | Everything. The single best window, and the Blue Nile Falls are at full flow |
| January – February | Dry, cool nights in the highlands, dusty at low altitude | Timkat, the Danakil, Simien and Bale, northern circuit |
| March – May | Hot, hazy, short rains in places | Lowlands early in the day; landscape work suffers from haze |
| June – September | Main rains, kiremt, in the highlands and north | Green landscape and dramatic skies, but roads and schedules are at risk |
| September | Rains end, hillsides covered in yellow meskel daisies | Enkutatash and Meskel, and exceptional landscape colour |
The festival calendar
Ethiopian festivals are among the most filmable events on the continent, and several of them will justify building your entire schedule around a single date. The table below runs in order of the Ethiopian year, which begins with Meskerem in September rather than with January.
| Festival | Ethiopian date | Gregorian date | Where and why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enkutatash — Ethiopian New Year | Meskerem 1 | 11 September | Nationwide. Marks the end of the rains, with hillsides covered in yellow meskel daisies |
| Meskel | Meskerem 17 | 27 September | Meskel Square in Addis Ababa and nationwide. The Demera bonfire, a UNESCO-listed celebration |
| Irreecha | Meskerem, date set annually | Late September or early October | Bishoftu, Oromia. Oromo thanksgiving gathering, very large crowds |
| Genna — Ethiopian Christmas | Tahsas 29 | 7 January | Lalibela. Tens of thousands of white-robed pilgrims at the rock churches |
| Timkat — Epiphany | Tir 11 | 19 January | Gondar and Addis Ababa. Mass blessing at the Fasilides Bath; the biggest visual event of the year |
| Fasika — Ethiopian Easter | Megabit or Miyazia, movable | Varies, usually April | Nationwide. Preceded by a long fast; midnight services |
| Ashenda / Shadey | Nehase 16 | 22 August | Tigray and Amhara. A girls' and women's festival with distinctive music and dress |
Reading the two calendars together
The Ethiopian date is the fixed one. The Gregorian equivalents above hold for most years, but they shift by one day in the year preceding an Ethiopian leap year, when Enkutatash falls on 12 September, Meskel on 28 September and Timkat on 20 January. Confirm the exact date for your shooting year before booking anything, and we will confirm it with you.
Festival filming needs positions agreed with religious and civil authorities weeks in advance, and accommodation in Lalibela and Gondar books out months ahead for Genna and Timkat. Once a crowd of that size arrives you will not move a tripod, so the position you negotiate is the film you get.
The Ethiopian calendar and clock
Ethiopia uses its own calendar of twelve months of thirty days plus a thirteenth month of five or six days, running seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar depending on the point in the year. A contributor's stated age, a document date or a local schedule may be given in that calendar, which matters for research and for archive.
The clock is offset too. Ethiopian time starts counting at dawn, so six o'clock in the morning Gregorian is twelve o'clock in Ethiopian time. When a location contact says the ceremony begins at two, they may well mean eight in the morning. We put both on the call sheet, which sounds trivial and prevents a genuine category of disaster.
The working week also runs Monday to Friday with government offices closed at weekends, and Wednesday and Friday are Orthodox fasting days, which changes catering and sometimes the willingness of contributors to be filmed eating.