Irecha Day

Today is “Irecha Rite” day here in Ethiopia.  This is a day that people that practice witchcraft gather around Lake Hora here in Debre Zeit and worship the lake.  Ethiopia is full of people that worship the devil.  A lot of them (especially people from the Oromo tribe) gather on this day to join together and celebrate their idol, Lake Hora, and offer her sacrifices in hopes that she will improve their life and/or situation for the next year.  

People offer sacrifices such as: animals, expensive whisky, a traditional drink, etc.  In the past it is said that people sacrificed children to their god.  It is unclear whether or not this still happens but some people believe that it does. 

Obviously, the Protestant Christians in Ethiopia hate this holiday.  Many Christians here carry a great burden for the people that follow this religion.  For the week prior to Irecha Rite day Christians climbed Couch Mountain in Debre Zeit to pray over their city.  Mussie and I wanted to participate more in this activity but due to not having early-early morning babysitters, the first week of school and my being sick we were only able to participate one day.  Looking back we probably could have tried harder to overcome some of these obstacles.  Next year, I will make more of an effort to attend the mountain prayer every day.

Mussie and I dropped Fiker and Rebirra off with Asaua at 5:30am on Thursday and left with Michelle, Kiara, and Lydia and headed off to the mountain.  We walked approximately 2 miles until we found a taxi that would take us closer to the mountain.  We reached the mountain peak at 6:45am just as the sun was coming up.  Everyone broke off either by themselves or into smaller groups and prayed for Debre Zeit.  We then all gathered into one group and sang songs and prayed together.

It was a great feeling to sit with Mussie on top of this beautiful mountain, sing worship songs together, and pray together for our city.  And, it was so powerful to be standing on top of God’s creation and pray for the people that have succumbed to a false religion of worshipping creation.  From our vantage point we could see the whole town and I prayed that God’s Truth would be recognized by the whole, entire town.

Lord God I pray that you open the eyes of Debre Zeit.  Many people in this town live in the clutches of Satan.  This town, this country is full of false religions, false teachers, and people that live in untruth and darkness.  Lord God, I pray for the people today that are worshiping Lake Hora.  I pray that even in their ignorance you keep them safe from today’s activities.  Satan wants today to be a prosperous day for him-he wants to see people die.  He wants to see people worship someone other than you.  He wants people to make empty sacrifices and believe false truths-anything to keep them from You.  I pray that you awaken them, soften their hearts, open their eyes so they can see You, open their ears so they can hear You.  I especially pray for the children that are being raised in this false religion.  Guard their hearts so they don’t turn like stone against you.  Lord, I pray for the Christians of Debre Zeit to rise up and proclaim your glory.  I pray for strength so we can be your light in the darkness that surrounds us.

Meskel Holiday

Yesterday was a big holiday in Ethiopia.  It is called Meskel (which means cross).  This is an Orthodox holiday that is greatly celebrated through all of Ethiopia, especially in the Southern region.  Protestant Christians don’t celebrate Meskel but it is a day off from work so most use it as a day to spend with their family.

It is believed that Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, found the cross that Christ was crucified on.  She claimed that in a dream she had a vision that she was to light a bonfire and the smoke would lead her to the true cross.  She claimed that she light that fire and the smoke lead her to the place where she found three crosses buried in the ground, one of which was the true cross.  This holiday is celebrated in September in Ethiopia, even though it is believed that the cross was actually found six months prior.

This day is huge in Ethiopia.  People celebrate with fireworks and making bonfires.  Since it is believed that the cross was found because of a bonfire people light bonfires all over the country in celebration.  Some people even put a cross above the bonfire and burn that. 

One of the cross bonfires I came across.

The crazy, expensive celebrations kind of reminded me of the gross expense that goes into the celebration of Christmas in America.  Some families send their children to bigger cities to work and they save the money the make for the entire year and then spend it all on the Meskel celebrations.  Then they go away the next year and save all of that money and blow it all again on a day of celebration.  

It was interesting to see how people celebrate this holiday here but it actually made me really sad.  People are celebrating a thing-the cross-instead of celebrating the person that died on that cross.  The cross is an object.  It was a means that allowed Jesus to offer himself as a payment for our sins so we could be cleansed.  The cross didn’t do anything.  The cross can do nothing for us.  I am not saying that we can’t use it as a symbol to remind us of what happened that day on Calvary but the Orthodox don’t believe that Christ’s death is the payment for their sins so I really don’t understand this whole holiday.  In simple terms, the Orthodox believe Mary is more important than Jesus.  They believe that Mary is the intercessor for their sins and that she will be their advocate.  I hate seeing so many people worship a false savior.  I pray that the eyes of the Orthodox in Ethiopia will be opened to the Truth.  It seems that we have a lot more work to do here in spreading the Truth.

Ethiopian New Year

Yesterday was Ethiopia’s New Year.  Ethiopia works on a different calendar known as “Ge’ez” as opposed to the Gregorian calendar that the USA (and most of the world) uses.  Ethiopia actually has 13 months in their calendar because for the first 12 months they have 30 days.  They have a 13th month that has 5 days to make up for the “extra” days.  So, in Ethiopia I get to celebrate two of every major holiday.  Two Christmases, two New Year’s, and two Easter’s.  The difference in calendars can be confusing.  When you ask someone for their birthday or when getting dates on receipts it is often confusing.  As if the calendars didn’t make things confusing, I also have to deal with different clocks here in Ethiopia.  Instead of their new day starting at midnight like I am used to their new day starts at 7am.  So if an Ethiopian says a program starts at 1pm you have to ask them “ferenji or habesha time” to know if you should show up at 1pm or 7pm according to your clock.  So confusing!

Anywhoo, we had a lot of fun celebrating New Year’s.  We went for brunch at the Tiatia’s house and then we had dinner at the BCI foster home at 4pm.  Ethiopians really put a lot into their holidays.  I love that they are so rich in culture.  One of the coolest ways that they celebrate is that boys go around from house to house singing for money (kind of like trick-or-treating).  It was cool to see and hear singing everywhere we went.

The New Year was really special because it was our first holiday as a new family.  It was cool to look back at this time last year and see how much our lives have changed (which it pretty much changed in every way).

But after all of the celebrations and good times Mussie and I ended our night with how I have ended every September 11th since September 11, 2001.  A few weeks after September 11th CNN was selling DVDs called “America Remembers”.  I bought one of them and every September 11th since I have watched it.  I never want to forget that day.  Not in a morbid way but as a small way to keep the memory of those victims alive.

I remember that day like it was yesterday.  I lived in the Baltimore area and my mom and step-dad lived about 20 mins outside of DC in Maryland.  I remember getting ready for class that morning and seeing on TV that the first plane hit.  Like most everyone else, thinking it was an accident, I went to school and then heard about the second plane.  My mom worked a few miles from the pentagon and my step-dad worked in DC so sheer panic set in.  I couldn’t reach them on the phone right away because the phone systems were completely overwhelmed.  I didn’t know what to do with myself so I started driving to work only to realize that I would be heading in the direction of Camp David so I turned around and went home.

It was cool to watch the DVD with Mussie last night because I was able to tell him about the experiences of that day, weeks, and months to follow.  It was also cool to hear how the Ethiopian people reacted to the news.  They were celebrating New Year’s and around 4pm the word started to spread that America was attacked.  He said that their New Year’s pretty much came to a halt while most Ethiopians spent the rest of the evening watching the news and praying for America.

September 11th is now a weird day for me.  A day of New Year’s celebrations and a day of rememberance for the loss of innocence that hit my home country.