Timkat/Epiphany

---

Ethiopia is really unique. They are mostly Orthodox Christian which is a very old sect of Christianity, hence the non-Gregorian calendar. Last Tuesday they celebrated Timkat, which we think is the celebration of when Mary was told she would carry the son of god. The group of 7 from Assendabo stayed for a long weekend and we got our preceptors to take us to the celebration. We met them at 11am, 5 in the morning, and they took us to the festivities. The roads quickly turned to cobblestones and mud, and a small trickle of people coming towards us quickly turned into a flood of people. We were in two groups, and the group I was in was ahead of the second. There was a hill towards our left and the road curved sharply down to the right. As we could not move forward anymore, we walked up onto the hill towards our left.

The celebration was a HUGE precession and our spot on the hill provided great viewing. We were packed up there. The road itself was maybe 20 feet wide and for 1 hour people passed by us in the precession. There were occasionally groups of men holding large palm leaves dancing and chanting, groups of chrsitian school children dressed in uniform singing, men with large sticks and mock-stick fighting, trucks with people in the bed singing over a loud speaker sound system, all within the large group of people, it was pretty crazy. What was great was that we were on the hill and as they came up the road and it turned, the view was squarely put on us white ferenjis. It was a sea of people and we made eye contact with every single one of them. Several people were taking pictures of us with their cell phones. The other group was a little further back, and we could see the tallest guy sticking out of the crowd ala Where’s Waldo.

Eventually we saw elaborate umbrellas coming up the hill. These were for the priests. The priests themselves were decked out in very brightly colored robes, intricately embroidered with silver thread. They would either be holding large crosses and holy objects or holding their robes up over their head. Behind them followed one last truck packed with people and someone singing over the speaker system. We joined the precession at this point and followed it to the main road. Traveling with the celebration was very slow, as the entire population was ahead of us. The celebration went left, we went right, back to town. Total time spent was 3+ hours, it was incredible.

---