The world runs on different time systems, but one country follows a calendar that sets it years apart from the rest.

       While most of the world follows the Gregorian calendar, this nation has stuck to its own unique system.

       As a result, it is currently living in 2017 while the rest of the world is in 2025.

       That country is Ethiopia, one of the oldest in the world, with a history stretching back thousands of years.

       Unlike most nations, Ethiopia follows the Ge’ez calendar, which is seven to eight years behind the widely used Gregorian calendar.

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       The difference comes from an alternate calculation of the birth of Jesus Christ - the Ethiopian calendar places it in 7 BC, while the Gregorian calendar marks it as 1 AD.

       The Ethiopian calendar consists of 13 months, with 12 months of 30 days each and an extra month called Pagumē, which has five or six days depending on whether it is a leap year.

       Ethiopia also celebrates the New Year on September 11 (or September 12 in a leap year), and Christmas falls on January 7, like in other Orthodox Christian traditions.

       This unique system means that Ethiopia’s official year is currently 2017, while the rest of the world is in 2025.

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       However, this does not affect the country’s daily life or age calculations and Ethiopians age at the same rate as everyone else, and the difference is purely in the way time is recorded.

       But there is much more to Ethiopia than just its unique calendar. The country is one of the oldest countries in Africa and has been continuously inhabited by humans for thousands of years.

       Some of the earliest human fossils, including Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old hominid skeleton, have been discovered there.

       The country also has a rich political history. It was one of the few African nations never colonized, successfully resisting Italy’s invasion in the late 19th century.

       However, it was occupied by Mussolini’s Italy from 1935 to 1941, before Emperor Haile Selassie regained control with British support.

       Today, Ethiopia is home to over 130 million people, making it the second most populous country in Africa after Nigeria.

       While Ethiopia’s calendar remains different, the country operates on the global stage like any other nation.

       Businesses and international dealings typically use the Gregorian calendar, but domestically, the Ethiopian system is still in place.