Abyssinia or Habesh, is supposed to be the original name for the area which is now regarded as Ethiopia.
Previously the name ‘Ethiopia,’ referred to most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Here are some few facts about Ethiopia, which you probably did not know.
To start with, there are Thirteen months to the year based on their own calendar, which means they are usually several years behind compared to the rest of the world.
Ethiopians also measure the hours of a day to a different schedule based on the logic that the clock starts when the day does.
Ethiopia is the only African country never to have been brought under any colonial rule or control.
The Coffee drinking culture is also believed to have started in Ethiopia.
According to history, the first cup of coffee in Ethiopia made by a local herder led to the taking off of the coffee industry.
Several archaeological findings in Ethiopia’s Afar region go quite some way in suggesting that the country could have actually been where all mankind originated from.
However, more discoveries later pointed out that, the cradle for mankind was in Northern Tanzania, though earlier people migrated to Ethiopia, and then settled there before proceeding to Egypt.
In 1960, an Ethiopian by the name of Abebe Bikila became the first black African to win gold in the Olympics Games.
The Capital City of Ethiopia is Addis Ababa. This name translates to ‘New Flower’ (sprouting petals) in Amharic.
Ethiopian cooking is regarded as some of the tastiest, healthiest and most diverse cuisine on the African continent.
The biggest festival in Ethiopia is known as Timket, which is a three-day annual fiesta that honors the baptism of Jesus Christ in the river Jordan.
Ethiopians acquired their first ever passports under the special program which allowed them to travel to Tanzania and climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
In Greek language Ethiopia is written as Aithiops (Αἰθιοπία) a compound word, later explained as derived from the Greek words ‘αἴθω’ and ‘ὤψ’.
According to the Liddell-Scott Jones Greek-English Lexicon, the designation properly translates as burnt-face in noun form and red-brown in adjectival form.
Emperor Haile Selassie was the most famous leaders in Ethiopian history.
But due to his status as the emperor, he got exiled during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia.
Haile Selassie would go onto return to Ethiopia and help in taking back control of the country from Italy.
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