The Timket Festival

Our guide Kaleb.

 The paraders.

Laying down the red carpet as the parade is going.

 Love the look, not sure what it is about.

 The gathering in the field.

 Abune Mathias and is the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

 The singers.

I stood right by the nearest metal tower of the stage.

Thursday, January 18^th.

In my rush to post my arrival in Addis Ababa I forgot to mention a couple of things. On the two long flights I watched Ken Burns 10-part documentary: Vietnam. It was excellent, and I recommend it to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the war and the role it played in the history of the US.

There are 22.05 Ethiopian Birr to $1 Canadian. Our two beer last night cost 28 Birr, so things here are cheap!

Ethiopia was formerly known as Abyssinia. It was changed to Ethiopia during the WWII years between 1941-45, when Italy occupied and annexed Abyssinia. It was one of the only countries not colonized by the Europeans. Some of the oldest skeletal evidence for anatomically modern humans have been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the region from which modern humans first set out for the Middle East and places beyond. 

Addis Ababa is a relatively new city established by the Emperor Menelik II in 1887.  The city has a population of over three million and is the largest city in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa is often referred to as "the political capital of Africa" for its historical, diplomatic and political significance for the continent, as it is where the African Union is and its predecessor the OAU was based, as well as being the federal capital of the country. It also hosts the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and numerous other continental and international organizations.

From what I saw from the drive to the hotel, it is growing by leaps and bounds as there is lots of construction going on, including many high-rise buildings. There is a modern city rail right outside our hotel. And from driving I noticed that pedestrians do not get the right of way. Driving is on the right again, so I must adjust my thinking as I cross the road.

This morning John and I both slept in as we had missed sleep on our flights here. We got at nine and headed down for the included breakfast. Almost all of it was gone and there were some people who were upset by that. Our waiter from last night told us to sit at a table and they brought us omelettes, bread, jam, fruit and coffee.

At 1:00 pm we went down to the lobby and met our tour guide, Kaleb, and the other members of our group. We are an older group of twelve people from Canada, England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, the States and Brazil. We had a quick briefing and then we got organized as we were off to see the beginning of the Timket Festival. We drove to the site, one of the churches in the city, in our large minivan. We parked by the Lucy Restaurant and we were told we had time for lunch before the parade that kicks off the celebrations got underway. So, half of us went in for food. When we finished, as we were leaving, John had to go to the loo and I remembered that I had left my hat at the table. I went back, and it was gone! I asked the waiters and the manager, but no one had seen it. They gave me a water bottle that was left on the table. By then John had gone outside as he thought that I had too. I looked for him in the mobs of people, but no luck. So, I told our guide and he came back to the restaurant to ask the management, but again no luck. I was really upset. Finally, I found John outside and he had my hat! And then he remembered that he forgot his water bottle, which I had. We are off to our usual chaos.

We waited on the road for another little while before the parade started. It came out of the church courtyard. This is a Christian Orthodox religious festival celebrating the epiphany, a Christian feast day. There were men rolling out red carpets on the road for the assembly to walk on. There were three or four groups of musicians and choir singers, followed by a number of religious holy men. It was amazing to see the crowds of people, the colours and hear the noise. A number of us got caught up in the crowd and were carried along as we tried to take photos and had trouble returning to the van, as it was a bit little salmon swimming upstream. Kaleb got a little annoyed that we were late getting back, but we honestly didn’t totally understand his directions. They haven't yet learned to put up barriers to keep the spectators off the road and out of the way. Therefore, we could get up close for photos but also got caught up in the traffic.

Anyway, we loaded up in the van and drove to a big open field where the marchers were going to assemble. There were different parades coming from about six other churches and they were all massing here. It was huge. By the time they all arrived there had to be a few thousand participants and thousands of spectators. There was a stage and our tourist guest passes allowed us to stand right up beside it. I was beside the stairs leading up to it and saw all the religious priests and the patriarch (basically the archbishop) pass right by me as they mounted the stage. His name is Abune Mathias and is the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. His full title is "His Holiness Abune, Mathias I, Sixth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Archbishop of Axum and Ichege of the See of Saint Taklehaimanot”. He was named Archbishop of North America 1992. Later he was asked to return to take up his former Archdiocese of Jerusalem and in 2013 he was elected to the position he holds now in Ethiopia. We stood and watched and listened to the singers as the celebration went on. The songs were very slow and almost funeral like, but the sights were incredible. Then Kaleb gathered us up and we left as we were off to dinner and the celebrations would go on through the night.

We went to a local restaurant where we had traditional meals, a couple of drinks and watched and listened to a number of singers and dancers who performed as we ate. I had a goat dish which was good but a bit chewy. I got talking to Brad from Toronto who has retired from his actuarial career at 40! We arrived back at the hotel by nine. What a great start to this tour.