Happy Timkat!

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Of course, Timkat is not in February but January. But I was there and it was incredible!!! What a colourful, joyous, loud (!), exciting celebration!
And that was just the beginning. Four weeks did I spend in that most amazing country. Condense that into a single blog entry? No way. So bear with me. Here comes part one.



I arrived in Addis Ababa early on January 17th so tired after a rather sleepless night on the plane that a first tour of the city didn't leave much of an impression besides it being huge and noisy. Although, even if a bit bleary-eyed, I did acknowledge "Lucy", who can be found in the National Museum. She is a 3.5 million year-old female hominid who was discovered in the western desert in 1974 and for more than twenty years was the oldest human ancestor known to science. The archeologists who found her christened her "Lucy" as the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" was playing on the radio at the time. The Ethiopians, though, call her "Dinkinesh" = you are wonderful.



On the next day - wake-up call at 4 am, hurray - we flew on to Lalibela, 2630 m above sea level (hear me gasping for air while runnning up and down the hillsides looking for the ultimate vantage point from which to observe, and photograph, the Timkat procession). Lalibela is famous for its rock-hewn churches dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. Legend has it that King Lalibela had them built with the help of angels who took over at night when the humans were asleep. Most photographed is probably Bete Gyorgis, the "house of St George", which has the shape of a Greek cross.
Yes, we saw them all, the churches. But especially on the first day I couldn't really concentrate on them, because it was the Eve of Timkat (Amharic for “Baptism”) and celebrations were just about to begin.




Timkat is the most important festival in the Ethiopian calendar, falling on January 19th, just two weeks after the Ethiopian Christmas. It is a three-day affair, beginning on the eve of Timkat when the 'tabots' (symbolising the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments) are removed from each church by the priests. Hidden from the eyes of the layman under layers of rich cloth they are taken in a dramatic and colourful procession to a large grassy area where they are stored overnight inside a special ceremonial tent. Priests dressed in ceremonial velvets and satins, carrying brightly coloured and sequinned umbrellas and bearing huge, silver or golden traditional Ethiopian crosses, Debteras (unordained clergymen responsible for music and dance during religious ceremonies) sing and dance and shake their sistra, drums are beaten, brass horns are blown, bells rung, young men charge through the crowds shaking long sticks and shouting rhythmically, there is clapping and ecstatic ululating ... mayhem one might think but it's great, and I am so close, and people wish me Happy Timkat and say welcome and let me feel part of it.



The following morning, the great day itself, Christ's baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist is commemorated. Mass is performed and a source of water - a river, a pool, in Lalibela a cross-shaped basin - is blessed, and then ... water-fight!! No, the communal baptism. And when everyone is thoroughly wet, including the one or other intrepid tourist, when all water bottles are filled with holy water and young boys are splashing around in the basin naked, the crowd finally disperses - only to meet again some time later when the procession back to the churches starts with many stops for ritual dancing, more singing, more glorious everything ... you get my drift, hopefully.




The third day of the celebrations is devoted to the Feast of St Michael, the archangel, one of Ethiopia's most popular saints. By then, though, we had left Lalibela behind and were on our way north via more churches and Adigrat to Aksum, then the Simien Mountains, Gondar and Bahir Dar.

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