Through the Solemn Lent to the Joyous Easter: Belief and Practice in Christian Ethiopia

Apart from the abstinence from different kinds of food, any popular entertainment in the form of music is forbidden. Bägäna, one of the traditional musical instruments, is common in these fasting days. The Gänätä Tsige kidus Giyorgis church at Addis Ababa has a permanent evening program devoted to sing by this instrument. Despite the general and imperative fasting not of Lent, exemptions are allowed to newly married couples, sick persons and women who have given birth.

A day before, the Passion Week starts, Hosa‘∂na, the Palm Sunday is observed with the proper ceremonies with palms, processions and special services. In some places like st. Mary Churches of Axum Tsion and Entoto, this feast is observed in a more dramatic way as it has happened in Jerusalem when Jesus entered into the city from Bethlehem and Bethany.

The week of the passion (sÑn ?¥¥T; Sämunä H∂mamat): this is the last week of Lent which covers the days from Monday (after Palm Sunday) to Saturday. During this week, the spirit of devotion rises to a climax; the abstentions become more firm and worship, charity and other religious activities take on a more solemn feature.

The church established this week by which all the faithful re-lived and received graces from the fundamental mysteries of redemption. During this week, the faithful are expected to bow down as much as they can. As a rule, all faithful begin prostration on Monday. This is to commemorate Jesus‘ frequent bowing down in the dawn of Thursday before the prosecutors seized Him. (Mt. 26 : 39).

In this week, faithful are also expected to pray much to commemorate Jesus‘ extensive prayers at Gethsemane before He was captured. G∂brä H∂mamat, a book which is composed of different passages taken from the scriptures and other religious books dealing with the passion and death of our Lord, is also read as a special feature of the devotion of this week. The priests usually read all passages related to Jesus’ life in flesh and all the passions He received to emancipate man from the colony of Satan. The style of reading from the Bible and the G∂brä H∂mamat is a musical expression of sorrow.

Since this week is a time on which faithful of the church commemorate the suffering and damnation of the 5500 years, absolution to persons who die during this week is prohibited. Those who died this week may simply be buried and then given absolution when Passion Week is over. However, according to the canon of the church, absolution is also given in advance on the previous Sunday, the Palm Sunday in case any one dies in week of passion. Furthermore, no baptisms or celebrations of saints’ days are carried out during this week.

For the same reason, priests do not give blessings to the faithful; and faithful cannot kiss the Holy Cross during the week of Passion. Greetings among the fellowship are also suspended for the week to remember that Judas betrayed the Lord after he kissed Him. The priests start blessing their children by the cross at the dawn of Friday when, according to the teaching of the Church, Jesus liberated Adam who has been under the yoke of Devil in Hell.

Maundy Thursday (xÄM /ÑS; Adam Hamus): Maundy  Thursday marks the borderline between the first half of the Week of Passion and its final climax which lasts up to cock – crow on Saturday. Hence, Holy Communion is delivered on this day since it was on this day. (Mt. 26: 26-28). On this day, before the Liturgy service, the priest brings water in a basin and washes the feet of the faithful saying the prayer of thanksgiving. This is to commemorate what Jesus has done to His Apostles (John 13:1-20).

Back home, the faithful unusually, eat split beans and wheat cooked together known as gulban. There are different explanations why they eat this special food: It is to remember that Israelites eaten unleavened bread during their Exodus from Egyptian bondage. Since the children of Israel left Egypt hastily, they did not have time for the bread to rise, so it was made on that very first Passover without leaven. In the Bible, leaven is almost always symbolic of sin. Some said, gulban is eaten in order to mourn for Jesus.  This is in keeping the Ethiopian custom of preparing a type of food made of split beans called n∂fro when people die.

Good Friday (SQlT; S∂klät):  The next day is Good Friday on which thousands of believers are expected to attend the solemn church service in their respective parishes. This day is decidedly a day of prostration for everybody. There is a sense of sorrow and desolation. All the symbols, images and instruments used in the passion of the savior are publicly exhibited covered in black curtain in the church. For example, priests who lead the ritual wear black vestments. All sacred objects including the altar is also covered with a black cloth. This is to remember the dark centuries during which Adam was alienated from his Creator. The priests perfume the church not with incense but with myrrh. According to the Church’s teaching, the myrrh symbolizes the death of Jesus. This is justified from the saying of St. Ephraim, the Syrian: xM{x# :Èn km xM§K W:t$ wRq XSm Ng#| WXt$ $ wkRb@ zYTwhB lät$ ; bring incense for He is God, gold for He is King and myrrh for the death He receives´

Men and women go to church to prostrate themselves, remaining there from early morning until 5-6 p.m.  the hour  of  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  Good Friday therefore, is a special day  for confession.

Good  Friday  is  the  day  when  faithful  sorely  remember  the  passion  Jesus  received  to  redeem humankind. This is so not only for the elderly ones but to the children also. Before elders go to their parishes to participate in the office, young boys and girls go round, and knocking at the door of each house demand food calling out:

¸š¸ë … ¸š¸ë

XGz!xB/@R xBZè YSÈCh# kkBt$½

yLJ brkt$NM ÃB²§Ch#¿

ytwlÇTM b-@Â Ydg#§Ch#

¸š¸ë … ¸š¸ë

mÈN mÈN lKRSèS SQlT

¼s@èC h#l#¼ Ñl# bÇq&T XíÒCNN XNd q$NÅ xÃl@ nN

¸š¸ë … ¸š¸ë

ysb# kBèC XGz!xB/@R YSÈCh# LíCNM b¥?iÂCh# S-#N Sõ¬Ch#NÝÝ

Mishamisho … mishamisho…

 May God give you cattle in your yard, and children to your bosom;

and may those you have already grow up in health and strength

 Mishamisho … mishamisho…

 We come for your crucifixion (Oh Christ) Fill (our hands) with flour (ye women)

We are many as fleas Mishamisho … mishamisho… May He (God) give ye fat cattle Children in your womb

Give us gifts.

 Since the rationale behind the Misha Misho food is to mourn for the crucified Jesus, faithful give the children different kinds of food  like freshly – `baked bread, powder, pepper, salt, onions, beer, mead, bear, cookery, etc. After they have gone their rounds, they take the collected food, and, retiring to some corner of their village, eat and amuse themselves. Then, to symbolize the mourn to Jesus, they make a sham corpse of a bundle of clothes, and placing it on a couch, carry it in procession through the village; part of the boys dressed up as priests, and the remainders as mourners. As they go along, imitating in every point a real funeral, they wail and cry out ”Wai, wai, wai… .” And when they are tired of walking about they go and make a grave near some of the most frequented thoroughfares in the place and bury it which clearly remind how Joseph took the body of Jesus and bury it. The whole of this performance of the children is imitated from the Bible. This dramatic interpretation of Bible shows that how the Ethiopian faithful live life to the full in practice as Christ since their childhood. 

 Although children pass their day of Good Friday enjoying with the collected food and symbolically for Jesus, more rigid form of fasting continues to most of the elders until time of cockcrow on Saturday night. During these three days, priests and elders neither eat bread nor drink water, but remain in the churches singing and praying incessantly both day and night. This form of solemn fasting is known as "Akfelot." The faithful do this in accordance with the tradition which holds that the Apostles did not eat and drink until they knew of the resurrection of the Lord. Those Christians who have the strength to abstain from every kind of food for two days can fast on both Friday and Saturday. However, those are not that much strong fast on Saturday only.

 Holy Saturday (ቀÄM ሥ;#R; k∂dame S∂‘ur ) : The  seventh  day  of  the  Passion  Week (Saturday)  is known as k∂dame S∂‘ur meaning unobserved. It is called so because unlike other Saturdays of the year, it becomes a fasting day. It is also called Green Saturday for on this day the sedge is given to the people as the symbol of good news. At earliest dawn Saturday morning, about 5:30, priests and deacons put on their best garments, including ‘kapa’ (cape) and ‘lämid’, carry their colorful sun umbrellas as if in procession, and pass through the streets with parade cross, bell, and armful of yellow – green palm strips called ‘qetema’. They stop before every house, ringing the bell and singing out the following:

                    KRSèS tmrmr፣ Ä!ÃBlÖS ¬\r ፣ bmSql#M s§MN xdrg፡፡

Jesus Christ has been challenged

The Devil is chained,

He made reconciliation by His crucifixion.

The sleepy owner answering the call is given the reed to wind flat around his fore head, and he will wear it all day. And in appreciation of the good news, the head of the house gives the priest some money, and receives a blessing in return.

The sedge is used as a sign of good news based on the story of Noah and his dove that sent to   see if the flood had subsided. The dove returned with an olive leaf and knowing that the water had abated. Accordingly, since the leaf of the olive tree served as a sign of good news during Noah’s time, the Church also presents sedge to the laity to herald the good news that the waters of destructive sin and the punishment of soul are removed from mankind through the death of Christ.

 On the night before Easter, many go to church and pass the night making prayers. The night wears on accompanied by prayers and Hymns, and sometimes after midnight, everybody in the k∂ne mahlet is given a lighted candle which he carries during the three joyous circuits around the mäkdäs. Cock- crow marks the end of devotions at church when the resurrection is loudly declared amidst shouting and ringing of bells. Then people rush, out of the smoky, incense filled church, home with mouths watering at the prospect of sumptuous meals. For people who have been fasting the akf∂lot, special items of food known as calka, a drink composed of linseed and honey mixed with water, milk and curdled milk are served at the main get of the church. The purpose is to sake the tired people the dangers of eating strong food immediately after such a long period of total abstinence.

 Easter (Ís!µ; Fasika): Easter occupies a special place of importance in the Christian world. Easter marks, for Christians the world over, the Resurrection of Christ, for it was on this day that "Christ the Lord is risen". Symbolically, Easter connotes the return of life, light and spring after darkness and death.

 The Easter Festival is a great Christian feast of the liturgical year of Ethiopia that it is celebrated with special solemnity. The church is filled with the fragrance of incense and myriads of lights. The clergy are arrayed in their choicest vestments. All the people hold lighted tapers in their hands. Presents are exchanged,  drums  are  beaten,  hands  are  clapped  and  the  singing  is  heard  everywhere:  "our Resurrection has come, Hosanna." Men are heard saying" O Lord Christ have mercy upon us." They pray for a blessing "O God make it to be a festival of our good fortune and our wellbeing! Call us the people for next year also". Therefore, the whole day is one of spiritual and physical fasting, a commemoration of the holiest occasion of all history – a truly blessed time when Christ rose from the dead.

 In the morning, families who could afford one slay sheep and in many cases they may join to buy an ox co-operatively, slaughter it, and then share the meat. With regained strength, fired by good food and beer, the young men begin games of javelin throwing. Ball games, Qenchebt continues the entire following week.

 There are different forms of greetings, which are commonly used on Easter day and on the days following it. The following verses are what people exchange in dialogue form:

 "KRSèS tN|x XѬN½ b;b!Y `YL w|LÈN½ ;\é l\YÈN½ xGxø lxÄM½ s§M½ XMYXz@s½ ÷n½FS/ ws§MÝÝ"

 Christ is risen from the dead!

 By the Highest power and authority! He chained ‘Satan’!