Holy Days and Celebrations (life cycle)

The following holy days are observed by Rastafari:

• Ethiopian Christmas on 7th January. Ethiopian Christmas is observed on the date of the Orthodox Church celebration of the birth of Jesus, usually on or around the 7th January, using the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date of his birth. Ethiopian holy days are observed because of their importance to Haile Selassie I, who was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian.

• Groundation (or Grounation) Day on 21st April. This is the date when Haile Selassie I visited Jamaica in 1966.

• Ethiopian Constitution Day on 16th July. The date commemorates the proclamation of the first modern constitution of Ethiopia by Haile Selassie I.

• Birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie I on 23rd July.

• Marcus Garvey’s Birthday on 17th August.

• Ethiopian New Year’s Day on 11th September. In leap years on the Gregorian calendar this falls on 12th September.

• Coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie I on 2nd November.