Which country has 13 months in a year

Ethiopia officially uses a calendar with 13 months, known as the Ethiopian calendar or Ge'ez calendar. This system divides the year into twelve months of exactly 30 days each, plus a thirteenth month called "Pagume" (or "Pagumen") that contains five days in a regular year and six days in a leap year. This structure creates a more mathematically balanced calendar than the Gregorian system, where month lengths vary irregularly between 28 and 31 days.

The Ethiopian calendar runs approximately seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar due to different calculations of the birth year of Jesus Christ, meaning that when it's 2026 in most of the world, it's around 2018 or 2019 in Ethiopia depending on the time of year. This creates unique situations for travelers and businesses operating in Ethiopia, who must convert dates between systems for international coordination. The thirteen-month structure also appears in some other calendar systems, such as the Coptic calendar used by the Coptic Orthodox Church, which shares the same basic structure. Understanding these alternative calendar systems reveals the diversity of timekeeping traditions worldwide and the cultural significance of different approaches to organizing the year.