Gena and Timkat

There were two major Ethiopian holidays that were celebrated during the month of January.  These two holidays are Gena and Timkat.  Both are major holidays that include celebrating, spending time with family and friends, and eating lots of food.  In this post I will talk a little about what each of these holidays celebrates and how I spent them.

Gena is the Amharic name for Christmas.  In Ethiopia, Christmas is celebrated on January 7^th.  The difference in date chosen to celebrate Christmas in this country is in part due to the Orthodox Christian religion as well as the Ethiopian calendar (which is 13 months, rather than 12).  Despite the difference in date, the meaning behind Christmas and the reason to celebrate is essentially the same.

In America, many people celebrate Christmas, even if they are not Christian per say.  In Ethiopia, almost all people are fairly if not very religious.  Most people in Ethiopia are Christian Orthodox, Protestant, or Muslim.   There are some who are also Catholic.  All listed above with the exception of Muslims celebrate Gena.  As per Ethiopian tradition when it comes to celebrating a holiday, the may be some sort of service to attend, family and friends will gather, and there will be a lot of food to eat.

I spent Gena in my town.  I was invited to the come to the house of one of the women who works for one of the NGOs I work with and who is also in the current English class that I teach.  My sitemate Ashley also came along.  We spent time with the woman who invited us over along with her mother, sister, and a couple family friends.  We ate some traditional food often eaten on holidays and drank buna (coffee) and tela (an Ethiopian version of beer).

Later in the day, my landlady invited me over for some food.  It turns out that it was her son Bobby’s birthday as well!  He turned six.  With that being said, there was also some cake involved.  Despite Ethiopian cake being drier and not quite as sweet as cake in the states, it was still good.

It was a very cool experience celebrating Christmas twice this year.  I was lucky enough to celebrate Christmas in December with some great people and then was able to experience Ethiopian Christmas.  It was a great way to celebrate my first Christmas in another country and away from my family.

Buna (coffee) ceremony

Traditional Ethiopian Christmas Tree :)

Christmas tree made of beer bottles.  I thought it was really creative!

Now it’s time to talk a little about Timkat!  Timkat celebrates two different things.  The first is celebrating the baptism of Jesus and the second is to celebrate the coming of the covenant of the ark.  It is a very unique holiday specific to Ethiopia and I was lucky enough to experience it with my parents because it happened to fall during the first week that they were here visiting.  Timkat actually spans over three days, January 18^th through the 20^th. 

The 18^th is the eve of Timkat.  On this day, there is a parade of people that converge and take the ark from the church to a designated place where it will spend the night.  On the 19^th, there is an early morning service celebrating the baptism of Jesus.  There is commonly a pool of water that is blessed by priests as holy water.  At the end of the service, many people rush to the pool of water.  In certain places, the pool is very large and people will actually jump in and swim for a while.  Each church has its own replica of the ark and in the afternoon, there are parades of people that will travel with many of these arks back to their designated churches.  On the third day of Timkat (the 20^th), there are more festivals as the few last arks travel back to the churches. 

I spent much of Timkat in a town called Lalibela.  Lalibela is a smaller town, but they did not fail in really celebrating the holiday.  It was a really amazing place to experience Timkat.  It is a very cool holiday to experience and if you are ever in Ethiopia during this time of the year, I would highly recommend experiencing the celebrations in Lalibela or Gondar.  That is a summary of what Gena and Timkat celebrate and how I celebrated.  If you have any questions about Gena, Timkat, or any other holidays, feel free to ask!

Parade of People with the Covenant of the Ark

Blessing of the Water