Ethiopian Christians Celebrate Timket Festive

Addis Ababa January 19/2021 (EAN)  Ethiopian Christians today colorfully celebrated Timket (Ethiopian Epiphany) amid COVID-19 pandemic.

It is to be recalled that Ethiopian Orthodox Churches on Monday celebrated ‘Ketera’, the eve of Ethiopian Epiphany (Timket).

Timket is one of the most important outdoor festivals in Ethiopia and millions of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian congregations across the country celebrated the centuries-old Timket  festivities.

The main Timket celebration started this early morning, when the ceremony began with pre-sunrise rituals and followed by the blessing and sprinkling of blessed water on the assembled congregation.

In Jan Meda, in the capital Addis Ababa, and the Northern City of Gondar, thousands of men and women dressed in traditional white embroidered clothes celebrated the Timket festive in colorful styles including procession, singing religious songs, dancing and waving national flags.

Ethiopian religious fathers together with Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Patriarch, Abune Mathias, religious fathers of the Greek Orthodox Church, and high-level Ethiopian government officials, dignitaries as well as residents of the city and tourists attended the Timket celebration at Jan Meda.

On 11 December 2019, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed Timket (Ethiopian Epiphany) as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity.

Timket, Ethiopia’s Feast of Epiphany, is one of the highest and holiest holidays in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian calendar, celebrated on 19th January every year, but on 20th January if it is a leap year.

Epiphany (Timket) is celebrated by Christians to mark the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the River Jordan.