Need help with gas leakage or a clogged drain, we offer affordable emergency services that are just a call away.Why are borrowed words used for the months of the year and days of the week when Somalis have their own calendar which is thousands of years old? Neighbouring Ethiopia has always used its own 13 month calendar. These days Somalis either use the Gregorian calendar (based on modified English, French or Italian names), the Arabic calendar based on the Islamic months or just simply numbers e.g. February is ‘bisha labaad’ or second month. In fact there are two different calendars historically – the Somali lunar calendar is known as dayax-tiris and the sun-based calendar is called ammin-tiris or shin-tiris. The calendars were used for different purposes. The solar calendar was used for weather forecasting, maritime travel and seasons identification. The lunar calendar was used for religious observance, social economic and legal contracts.
Somali nomads have traditionally had such a comprehensive and scientific knowledge of astrology and meteorology that they used in their everyday lives. The farmers and herders would use this knowledge to determine the weather and seasons. They could say from their observations what the weather would be like and what could be expected in the coming year which started with ‘Dabshid’ or new year around the 20th July. Dabshid celebrations used to take place at that time, a remnant of pre-Islamic times apparently. Such pagan celebrations would not be in keeping with an Islamic country neither would the prophesising that people did but that aside dabshid and Kaltirsi is part of Somali language and culture. We should take from this what is good and leave the doubtful behind.
The older Somali generation will have knowledge of Kaltirsi but it is not common knowledge amongst the younger generation. Nomadic life is not attractive to young people and as Somalis move away from the old ways of life we see a dying of the skills Somalis used to rear their animals and raise their crops.