The Tabot Calendar
By Peter Meyer
This page first published September 27, 2006 CE = Sawwara 30, 75 H.I.M.

Following the coronation of H.I.M. Haile Selassie 1st on November 2nd, 1930 AD, as Emperor of Abyssinia, an offshoot of Christianity emerged, known as Rastafarianism. The term is derived from Ras Tafari, where Tafari was the birth name of Haile Selassie (born on the 23rd of July 1892), and Ras is a title (like Duke) which he was given on the 11th of February 1917.

The Tabot calendar was created by Mark Moore, a.k.a. Ras Mahitema Selassie, and was first published in paper form in 1997. (Tabot is short for The Anointed Body of Testimony = Haile Selassie 1st.) As the rules for the calendar had not been fully worked out a representative of Tabot ministries requested me to ascertain exact rules subject to the following requirements:

  1. A year is divided into 11 months of 30 days each plus a 12th month of 35 days except that:
  2. Every fourth year an extra day is added at the end of one of the first 11 months.
  3. New Years Day in this calendar should always fall on November 2nd in the Gregorian Calendar.

In accordance with these requirements I proposed a definition of the Tabot Calendar as follows:

  1. Years consist of 365 or 366 consecutive days and are numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, ...
  2. A year is divided into 12 contiguous non-overlapping months, numbered 1 through 12.
  3. A year numbered N is said to be a long year if and only if at least one of the following is true:
    1. N+3 is divisible by 4 but N+31 is not divisible by 100.
    2. N+331 is divisible by 400.
  4. A year which is not a long year is said to be a normal year.
  5. Months 1 through 3 and months 5 through 11 each have 30 days.
  6. Month 4 has 30 days in a normal year and 31 days in a long year.
  7. Month 12 has 35 days.
  8. The first day of the first month of the first year (year 0) in the Tabot Calendar coincides with November 2nd, 1930 AD, in the Gregorian Calendar.

The months in the Tabot Calendar are named as follows:

Month
number		 Month
name		 Number
of days
1 Anbassa 30
2 Hymanot 30
3 Immanuel 30
4 Ras 30 or 31
5 Ta'Berhan 30
6 Manassa 30
7 Danaffa 30
8 Negest 30
9 Tafari 30
10 Emru 30
11 Sawwara 30
12 Negus & Dejazmatch 35

The days of the week in the Tabot Calendar are named as follows:

  1. Ergat (the day of Ascension) corresponds to Sunday.
  2. Tazajenat (the day of Obedience) corresponds to Monday.
  3. Kedusenant (the day of Holiness) corresponds to Tuesday.
  4. Ra'ee (the day of Revelation) corresponds to Wednesday.
  5. Makrab (the day of Provision) corresponds to Thursday.
  6. Mamlak (the day of Worship) corresponds to Friday.
  7. Germa (the day of Majesty) corresponds to Saturday.

Here is an example of a month in the Tabot Calendar:

Sawwara, the Deliverer
Sawwara 75 H.I.M. begins August 29th, 2006
 Erg  Taz  Ked  Ra'  Mak  Mam  Ger 
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   

It is part of the definition of the Tabot Calendar that the first day of the first month always occurs on a particular day in November. In fact this is true of all twelve Tabot months. In other words, the first day of a Tabot month always occurs on a particular day of the month in the Gregorian Calendar, as stated below:

The first day of the Tabot month with this number ...   ... always occurs on this day in the Gregorian Calendar:
 
1   November 2nd
2   December 2nd
3   January 1st
4   January 31st
5   March 2nd
6   April 1st
7   May 1st
8   May 31st
9   June 30th
10   July 30th
11   August 29th
12   September 28th

The following link displays today's date in the Tabot Calendar.

This is also available on the Tabot Ministries website at www.tabot.co.uk.

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