What Is Enkutatash? Inside the Ethiopian New Year Table Coming to Zurich
There's a version of New Year most of Switzerland has never heard of.
No countdown. No fireworks at midnight. Enkutatash — the Ethiopian New Year, celebrated in September — is marked the way most important things in Ethiopian life are marked: around a table, with coffee poured slowly and food meant to be shared by hand.
This September, that table is coming to Zurich.
Where Enkutatash Comes From
Enkutatash falls in September because the Ethiopian calendar itself runs differently — roughly seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar, with its own thirteen months. The name translates loosely to "gift of jewels," tied to a story of the Queen of Sheba's return to Ethiopia after visiting King Solomon, welcomed home with gifts that gave the holiday its name.
But ask anyone who grew up celebrating it, and the story they tell isn't about ancient kingdoms. It's about their grandmother's kitchen. It's the smell of roasting coffee beans drifting through the house before anyone's said a word. It's yellow daisies — adey abeba, the flowers that bloom exactly when the New Year arrives, marking the end of the rainy season and the start of something new.
The Table Is the Point
If there's one thing that defines Enkutatash — and Ethiopian hospitality more broadly — it's this: nothing important happens alone.
The coffee ceremony sits at the centre of it. Green beans are roasted by hand, right in front of guests, filling the room with smoke and smell before a single cup is poured. It isn't a five-minute transaction like ordering a flat white. It's closer to an hour — sometimes longer — of beans roasting, grinding, brewing in a clay jebena, and pouring, cup after cup, for as long as people are willing to sit together.
That's the part that doesn't translate well into a product description. Ethiopian coffee culture isn't about the drink. It's about the time it forces you to spend with the people around you.
Alongside the coffee: injera, the spongy sourdough flatbread that doubles as both plate and cutlery, piled with stews meant to be torn and shared from one dish, by hand, with whoever's sitting closest — family or stranger.
Why We're Bringing This to Zurich
Every year, Ethiopians living in Switzerland mark Enkutatash somewhere — in homes, in smaller gatherings, often quietly, often far from the scale it would have back home.
This year, we wanted to build a table big enough to hold more than one household. Not a performance of Ethiopian culture for an audience, but an actual seat at an actual table — for Zurich's Ethiopian community celebrating New Year away from home, for the coffee professionals who've built their craft around Ethiopian beans without always knowing the ritual behind them, and for anyone curious enough to say yes to an evening they've never had before.
That's what Swiss Sheba exists to do: not sell Ethiopia as a destination, but open a door into it — starting with the table, because that's where it's always started.
On 10 September, we're hosting exactly that in Zurich — a coffee ceremony, a shared meal, and the stories that come with both. Seats are limited, and it's the first gathering of what we hope becomes a running table, not a one-off event.
If a September evening doesn't work for you, or you just want to know when the next one lands, subscribe to our stories — we'll let you know before anyone else does.