Partying Like It's 1999

Ethiopia Rings in the New Millennium -- in 2007

While millennium celebrations and Y2K worries are but a distant memory to most in the West, Ethiopia's unique Coptic calendar meant that it was their turn to celebrate the arrival of the year 2000 on Tuesday night.

Ethiopians celebrated the eve of their third millennium Tuesday with festivities which included a performance by the Black Eyed Peas in the nation's capital, Addis Ababa.

According to their unique Coptic calendar, which lags seven year's behind the more common Gregorian calendar, Wednesday marks the first day of 2000.

The country prepared for the holiday in advance, cleaning up Addis Ababa's streets by forcing out beggars and poisoning stray dogs, and replacing them with flowers and flags. A multimillion euro concert hall was also built for the occasion.

While many in the impoverished country criticized the government for spending so lavishly on the event, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said it would serve as a harbinger for good times ahead.

"A thousand years from now, when Ethiopians gather to welcome the fourth millennium," he said at Tuesday night's concert. "They will say that the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the end of the dark ages in Ethiopia."

While some events were free, very few people could afford the €123 ($170) concert tickets to see the Peas, which is the equivalent of two months' pay for the average Ethiopian. Instead, many people observed the holiday at home with more solemn, candlelit celebrations.

acc/ap