Paradise Ethiopia Travel

Ethiopians love to celebrate. Whether it is an important event remembering great moments in their history, major landmarks in the religious calendar, or simply special family days, they love to get out their best clothes, food and drink a-plenty, and process, dance and sing as the musicians play their unusual instruments.

National holidays include the victory over the Italian army at the battle of Adwa in 1896, the end of the Italian occupation in 1941 and the downfall of the communist Derg in 1991. The major Ethiopian Orthodox Church festivals, however, represent the people at their most colourful and celebratory.

Literally meaning ‘a finger jewel gift’, Enkutatash recalls the gifts given to the eminent Queen of Sheba when she was welcomed home after visiting King Solomon. The  festival has been celebrated as the rains come to an abrupt end since very early times and dancing and singing can be heard in every village across the green countryside.

Meskel has been celebrated in Ethiopia since the fourth century. It is one of the major Ethiopian Christian festivals and is celebrated on September 26th and 27th. The main purpose is to commemorate, according to tradition, the discovery of the cross on which Jesus was crucified, by the Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, in AD 326.

Ethiopian Christmas, also know as Lidet, falls on January 7th or 8th, with brightly coloured celebrations across the country. Church services go on throughout the night, with people moving from one church to another.

 

Timket is Ethiopia’s most popular and energetically celebrated festival that takes place just two weeks after Christmas, on January 19th for three consecutive days. Beginning on Ketera the eve of the special day, the festival is of a different content to that of the Western calendar in that it commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.

 

Lake Tana the largest lake in Ethiopia (3,000km2), is the source of the famed Blue Nile which starts its long journey to Khartoum, and on to the Mediterranean.