Attending Ethiopia’s Impressive Epiphany Festivity

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Addis Ababa January 19/2019 Lina Amhani, an Israeli national, has attended the Timket festival, celebrated by Ethiopian Christians to commemorate the baptism of Jesus Christ in the hands of John the Baptist at the River Jordan for the first time.

The Ethiopian Epiphany, Timket, an outdoor celebration that involves tens of thousands of followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, celebrated on the 19th of January, except for leap years.

The observation, which started in the eve of the holiday, known as Ketera, lasts for three days.

The celebration started in the eve by taking the replicas of the Ark of the Covenant (Tabot) from all churches and monasteries of the Orthodox Church to a communal baptism place in which they stayed a night or two.

Bringing the Tabots to places dedicated for this purpose is to commemorate that Jesus Christ has went to River Jordan to be baptized. They are carried to the baptism place by priests accompanied by the clergy, Sunday school students and the faithful.

Amhani, 48, an anthropologist conducted cultural studies, is highly impressed with the festival and the way the celebration is being observed particularly the presence of such a huge crowd and the way they dressed.

She said the Timket festival is a “special event that is unique to Ethiopia”.

“It is really very special and extraordinary feast to see such organization among the clergies and also those young. And the Ethiopian Timket goes beyond symbolic religious virtue and embodies the many cultural values and ethos of almost unimaginable scope,” she said.

Since the festival is a magnet for tourists, many foreigners like Lina Amhani and her husband brace the slow procession and huge crowd to enjoy the colorful church services where the Tabots are staying the night and along the streets they proceed.

Impressed with the huge crowd that accompanied the Tabots, Amhani said “I think this Ethiopian epiphany looks like the most essential day of the year for public gathering from every corner of the country.”

“Oh! It is an amazing festival. Along with its religious and spiritual value, I am really exited on its cultural event where the public sings cultural songs, performs traditional dances and parades with the most attractive traditionally decorated dressing,” she said.

Saying that observing Epiphany is common in the Christian communities across the globe, Elo Laon, Amhani’s husband said the Ethiopian celebration is unique.

“Timket festival is characteristically different from other Christian observations of the same holiday, because it is a religious as well as a secular festival in Ethiopia," he said.

Most of the Tabots return to their churches or monasteries today, while from churches named after Sts Michael and Rafael stay their second night at the baptism places.

As a holiday that brings together religious and cultural values, Ethiopia is working to make Timket one of the world’s intangible heritages.

Ethiopian News Agency
2023