TIMKET/EPIPHANY

Timket is one of the greatest festivals in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church calendar, celebrated two weeks after Genna. It marks Christ’s baptism by St. John in the Jordan River and is considered the most colorful event of the year. Timket falls on January 11 on the Ethiopian calendar (January 19 on the Gregorian calendar).
The festival starts at Timket Eve, January 18 (19 leap year), eleven days after the orthodox Christmas. Although the festival is largely religious, it has no lack of secular elements such as partying and match-making. According to the Ethiopian epic Kebre Negast, the Ark of the Covenant was abducted from Jerusalem to Ethiopia during the first millennium BC. Since then, it has become the most sacred element of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Early afternoon in the Timket Eve, the replicas of the Ark, covered by silks, are carried solemnly by priests from each church to the nearby body of water. Accompanying the procession are tens of thousands of church members and believers, chanting, dancing, drum-beating, horn-blowing, prayer-stick-waving and sistra(a simple musical instrument)-rattling. All in all, it resembles the scene described in the Old Testament. As evening falls, the priests and the pious believers participate in overnight vigil around the Arks until dawn. Then huge crowds gather around the water. After the chief priest blesses the water, the celebration reaches its climax. After the religious vows are renewed, the Arks are paraded back with the same celebrating fashion to the home church

ITINERARY

• Focus: Timket festival in Gondar and Northern Historic Route
• Code: GU-003