By Katie Nguyen and Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Seven years after the rest of the world, Ethiopia entered the 21st century on Wednesday with parties, prayers and gestures of political reconciliation.
Tens of thousands of revellers packed the capital Addis Ababa's main square for festivities overnight that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said should mark the vast Horn of Africa nation's renaissance.
Ethiopia follows a calendar long abandoned by the West, that squeezes 13 months into every year.
Meles said the occasion heralded a "glorious new page" in the history of a country that, from the 1980s, became for many in the outside world a byword for hunger and conflict.
"A thousand years from now, when Ethiopians gather to welcome the fourth millennium, they shall say the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the end of the dark ages in Ethiopia," he said.
"They shall say that the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the Ethiopian renaissance."
Whistles, car horns and sirens shook the air at midnight.
Then, as dawn melted the mist shrouding the highland city, worshippers wrapped in traditional white robes flocked to church, crossing paths with partygoers returning from a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.
"I've come for God's blessing," said Michele Fantaye, smearing ash on his forehead.
"I hope the next 1,000 years will deliver peace and unity."
Banging drums, Orthodox Christian priests sang of the importance of the occasion in Ethiopia's ancient Ge'ez language in churches choked with incense.
BONFIRES AND FASTING
After the discovery of the 3-million-year-old "Lucy" skeleton, Ethiopia's 81 million people proudly claim their nation was the cradle of humanity, as well as the birthplace of coffee, and the only African nation not to be colonised.
But "the darkness of poverty and backwardness" had dimmed Ethiopia's proud reputation, Meles said. "We cannot but feel deeply insulted that at the dawn of the new Millennium ours is one of the poorest countries in the world," he said.
He was speaking at a new exhibition hall where U.S. hip hop act Black Eyed Peas performed for dignitaries, including regional leaders, and the capital's elite.
Many stayed away from the official event, regarded by critics as a government project. They preferred to party for free in a sports ground rather than pay $170 -- two months' wage for many -- to rub shoulders with the great and good.
Some in Addis Ababa, an opposition stronghold, were angry at the government's campaign to clear the streets of thousands of beggars, and at the spiralling cost of food for the Millennium.
"I don't think much will change," said one local, Belai Kassa. "Most of us will stay poor."
Most Ethiopians spent a rainy New Year's Day with their families. Sweeping away ashes of bonfires lit the night before, many held a day's fasting to be broken on Thursday by a meal of njera, spongy Ethiopian bread, and roasted goat.
"We visit family and wish them good luck for the coming year," said Meti Yilma, 27. "We take a sheep or a chicken or bread or liquor to show our respects."
Children in search of a few birr went from house to house bearing New Year cards and yellow flowers symbolising the end of the rainy season and hope for a bountiful harvest.
A host of Millennium events were delayed or dropped because of security concerns in Ethiopia which is embroiled in Somalia's conflict, locked in a bitter border row with Eritrea, and fighting separatist rebels in its Ogaden region.
Criticised by the international community for an opposition crackdown after disputed 2005 elections, the government released nearly 18,000 prisoners this week. They included 230 political prisoners, of whom 35 were Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels.
