Last week Orthodox Ethiopians celebrated Timkit, also called Epiphany. This is the day that they celebrate the baptism of Jesus Christ. The way they do this is really cool. All over Ethiopia, they start their festivities by taking the ark of the covenant out of their church’s storage. Obviously this isn’t the real ark of the covenant but each Ethiopian Orthodox church has an “ark of the covenant” that is to represent the real ark of the covenant that is believed to be in Northern Ethiopia. So anyway, they take out the ark and in each city there is a meeting place. Each church has a parade through the city on the way to the meeting place.
Mussie, the kids, and I got caught up in one of the parades. We were out shopping for the visiting missionaries and the only place Mussie was able to park was in the middle of the sidewalk. He got out to get pictures and I stayed in the bajaj. Hundreds of people were all around us. I wish I had a camera in the bajaj ‘cause it was crazy. The parade of people had to break apart to go around the bajaj and they were bumping into the bajaj. A lot of people had to stop and talk to the white girl that was caught in the middle of the parade-apparently that was new! If you know me at all, you know I hate big crowds of people but I had to keep it together ‘cause I had the kids in the bajaj.
So all over the city there are a bunch of these parades, they come from all directions and they all met at the big soccer field in Debre Zeit. Thousands of people spend the night in the soccer field where they spend their time praying.
Here are a few pics of the parade:
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