The Tabot Calendar is a new calendar used by some Rastafarians. It 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.) The final rules for the calendar were established by Peter Meyer in 2006.
New years day in this calendar always falls on November 2nd in the Common Era Calendar, the anniversary of the coronation of H.I.M. Haile Selassie 1st as Emperor of Abyssinia in 1930 CE.
The Tabot Calendar is defined as follows:
- Years consist of 365 or 366 consecutive days and are numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, ...
- A year is divided into 12 contiguous non-overlapping months, numbered 1 through 12.
- A year numbered N is said to be a long year if and only if at least one of the following is true:
- N+3 is divisible by 4 but N+31 is not divisible by 100.
- N+331 is divisible by 400.
- A year which is not a long year is said to be a normal year.
- Months 1 through 3 and months 5 through 11 each have 30 days.
- Month 4 has 30 days in a normal year and 31 days in a long year.
- Month 12 has 35 days.
- A series of 7-day weeks runs parallel with the dates in this calendar, as in the Gregorian Calendar, although their names are different (and as of late 2006 had not been decided upon).
- The first day of the first month of the first year (year 0) in the Tabot Calendar coincides with November 2nd, 1930 in the Common Era Calendar.
| Month number | Month name | Number of days | Gregorian Start Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Anbassa | 30 | November 2 |
| 02 | Hymanot | 30 | December 2 |
| 03 | Malakot | 30 | January 1 |
| 04 | Ras | 30 or 31 | January 31 |
| 05 | Ta'Berhan | 30 | March 2 |
| 06 | Manassa | 30 | April 1 |
| 07 | Danaffa | 30 | May 1 |
| 08 | Negest | 30 | May 31 |
| 09 | Tafari | 30 | June 30 |
| 10 | Emru | 30 | July 30 |
| 11 | Sawwara | 30 | August 29 |
| 12 | Negus-Dejazmatch | 35 | September 28 |
The rules ensure that a year is a long year, if and only if, it contains Gregorian February 29. Also March 1 is the only Gregorian date that does not occur on the same Tabot date every year. In particular, the start dates in the table above apply to every year.