Feast of the Epiphany timqat

in Lalibela, Ethiopia clip I

timiqat in Lalibela, Ethiopia clip II

After the decline of the Axumite state, a new Christian dynasty emerged in the 12th century. This Zagwe dynasty made its capital in Roha, some hundreds of kilometres south of Axum.

According to a legendary account, King Lalibela was born in Roha. His name means 'the bee recognises its sovereignty'. God ordered him to build 10 monolithic churches, and gave him detailed instructions as to their construction and even their colours. When his brother Harbay abdicated, time had come for Lalibela to fulfil this command. Construction work began and is said to have been carried out with remarkable speed, which is scarcely surprising, for, according to legend, angels joined the labourers by day and in the night did double the amount of work which the men had done during the hours of daylight. worldheritagesite

Ancient mosques and fortressess reward visitors to this UNESCO World Heritage site

Mini mosque shares space inside a tree.

(edited)

By Anita Powell, Associated Press

Last update: October 19, 2007 – 5:49 PM


HARAR, Ethiopia - For 1,000 years, this city on a hilltop has been a center of Islamic faith in the Horn of Africa, with a forbidding 13-foot-tall wall surrounding ancient mosques and serpentine alleyways.
Harar leaders now hope it can become a center of tourism, as well.

"The future of Harar is tourist attraction," said regional president Murad Abdulhadi.

Harar was named a UNESCO World Heritage site last year, joining some of the world's top landmarks, such as the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall of China and the Acropolis in Greece.

It is also the fourth holiest city in Islam -- behind Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. And some consider Harar the birthplace of coffee. Its aroma wafts through the cool air of the Ethiopian highlands.

Some of Harar's attractions defy easy explanation, such as the old man who hand-feeds about 50 hyenas every night, treating them like obedient kittens.

New hotels on the rise

But the city, which lies about 250 miles from the capital, Addis Ababa, lacks modern amenities and sufficient water. With only a few hotels and the nearest airport more than an hour's drive away, moving Harar into the future is an ambitious plan.

Abdulnasser Idriss, who heads Harar's tourism department, acknowledges the city faces problems in accommodating more than the 4,500 tourists who go there each year.

To speed development, the regional government has given a 10-year tax break to anyone interested in building tourist facilities. Federal officials plan to make Harar and its neighboring city, Dire Dawa, part of an advertising campaign to lure tourists from neighboring Djibouti.

Ethiopian officials would not say how much has been invested so far, but construction is everywhere: unfinished hotels and restaurants dot the road leading into the main part of the city.

Oil baron Sheik Mohammed Alamoudi, believed to have invested more than $1 billion in his native country, has sent a team to Harar at the request of regional officials to investigate potential to build the city's first luxury hotel.

The city is also planning a $34.5 million water project that will increase Harar's available water supply more than sevenfold. Each resident now gets five gallons of water per day.

But what Harar lacks in modern amenities it more than compensates for in ancient wonders: nearly 100 old mosques, fortress-style walls, alleyways filled with ancient homes.

Rimbaud lived in Harar

French poet Arthur Rimbaud lived in Harar in the late 1800s. The airy, colorful house where he resided is now an art gallery showing modern photography and Ethiopian crafts.

Abdurahman Ibrahim, 38, who lived in Harar as a child but recently returned for a visit, said the city has become much more alluring to tourists.

"Everything has changed," said the Toronto resident. "Most of the things for the better. The city has grown so much. The road is better. The electricity is better. The water is better."

Still, as Harar moves further into the modern world, many locals say they're proud of the past.

According to Zeydan Bekri, a lifelong Harari, "The basic thing is we want to protect this culture, to keep it as it is for the next generation."

Origins of the Day of Love

(According to University of Notre Dame
Professor Lawrence Cunningham)

Roman Feast of Lupercalia - This ancient pagan fertility celebration, which honored Juno, queen of the Roman gods and goddesses and goddess of women and marriage, was held on February 14, the day before the feast began. During festival time, women would write love letters, also known as billets, and leave them in a large urn. The men of Rome would then draw a note from the urn and ardently pursue the woman who wrote the message they had chosen. (Apparently, the custom of lottery drawings to select valentines continued into the 18th century, coming to an end when people decided they'd rather choose -- sight seen! -- their valentines.)

The Birds and the Bees? - In the Middle Ages, people began to send love letters on Valentine's Day. Medieval Europeans believed that birds began to mate on February 14.


There's also some controversy regarding Saint Valentine, for whom the famous day is named. Archaeologists, who unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to St. Valentine, are not sure if there was one Valentine or more. Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred on February 14 -- at least two of those in Italy during the 3rd century. The most popular candidate for St. Valentine was a 3rd century Roman priest who practiced Christianity and performed secret marriages against direct orders from Emperor Claudius II, who believed single soldiers were more likely to join his army. Legend has it that Valentine sent a friend (the jailer's daughter) a note signed "From Your Valentine" before he was executed on February 14 in 270 A.D. (That phrase is still used prominently on today's cards!)

Early Christians were happier with the idea of a holiday honoring the saint of romantic causes than with one recognizing a pagan festival. In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius named February 14 in honor of St. Valentine as the patron saint of lovers. In 1969, Pope Paul VI dropped it from the calendar. However, the blend of Roman festival and Christian martyrdom had caught on, and Valentine's Day was here to stay.
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A Must-Read Article........Sankofa.....Adwa.....

'Sankofa' director back with film of Ethiopian battle
By Mary Gabriel
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (Reuters) - With the 1994 picture ``Sankofa,'' Ethiopian director Haile Gerima became something of a legend in the independent film world.
His haunting story of an African American woman's time travel back to the days of slave trading was rejected by Hollywood, which said it did not know how to market it. But Gerima did. He simply let the movie speak for itself.

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THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN CHRISTMAS MYTH AND CUSTOMS

( B. K. Swartz, Jr.)
Fundamentally Christmas celebration is based on the intertwining of two ethnic patterns, Roman transition rites and Germano-Celtic Yule (jiuleis) rites-feasting and mortuary practice. First known use of the word Christes-Maess was in England, 1038. The English titled Feast Days with Mass Days. No Saint's day listed for December 25th. Abbreviation Xmas; X is Greek Chi, the first letters of Christmas--not X blank out.

In colonial New England Thanksgiving, not Christmas, was the important seasonal holiday. Puritans passed an anti-Christmas law in 1659, repealed 1681. Christmas celebration was resisted by the Congregationalist Cotton Mather (1663-1728). First recorded post-repeal celebration was in 1686. Christmas was declared a holiday in Louisiana, 1837. Christmas was unimportant in the United States until 1880's when the church relented. In 1885 a law was enacted giving federal employees Christmas day off. Christmas declared a legal holiday in U.S. late (1894 or in this century). Get the whole story

E're Bati, Bati........

Selam wd wegenoC! Indemn alaCu?

This ....... will take you to the town of Bati in the Wello region.

BATI
E're Bati, Bati........

Bati gende'liyu........

Teren-wa y'metal

Teshe-faf-new sihedu...

E're Bati, Bati........

goes one of Kassa's Tizeta songs paying tribute to a small town in Wello that has inspired countless verses of songs that celebrate the beauty, romance and poetry of the land and children of Wello.

Bati is a small town you meet as you travel from Dessie high in the central plateau to the lowlands of Afar on your way to the Red Sea port city of Asseb. Bati is a unique place where Dega Ethiopia meets Kola Ethiopia. It is a place where Christian Ethiopia meets Moslem Ethiopia. Oromo Ethiopia, Afar Ethiopia and Amhara Ethiopia meet in this unique place and interact in a remarkable way that sets a positive example to the rest of the nation.

As you read this article this Monday morning, thousands of Ethiopians flock to Bati Gebeya as they have done so regularly for each of the 52 Mondays of the past 200-300 years(*). At around 10 o'clock in the morning, Afars from the Danakil lowlands could be seen leading hundreds of camels to the market. Highland Amhara men clad in 'Bernos' and their women with silver crosses around their necks, Oromo and Amhara Moslem men in their knitted skull-caps are a common sight.

By mid-day, Bati Gebeya is flooded with almost 15,000 people(*) trading in such diverse items as Chinese tea-cups, soap, nafta, batteries, incense, blue jeans, electronic goods, salt etc.. But for most of the people assembled here this Monday morning, business as in selling and buying stuffs is not on the top of the list. It is rather a secondary engagement. Socializing and just watching everybody else seems to be the favorite engagement of everyone here.

For both the highlanders (Dege'gnas) and the lowlanders (Kole-gnas), Bati Gebeya is a whole different world. Afar women, most of them bare-breasted, display their necklaces, bracelets and earrings and their intricate hairdos. The Afar men, often lean and tall, walk around with a rifle slung over their shoulders and a large dagger dangling over their sides. They walk effortlessly and often checking the roundness of their afro hairstyles. Tigrean and Yemeni used to be the main traders here, but with the introduction of the lucrative trade in electronic goods such as tape recorders and VCR, the ever entrepreneurs-the Gurages are establishing a strong presence.

Late in the afternoon, as business winds down to a slow pace and young men and women have flirted, the lowlanders pack up to travel to their homes in the Danakil plains before sunset. And the higlanders, often satisfied with their new purchased batteries and Nafta fuel and occasionally, electronic goods from Taiwan get ready to negotiate the uphill routes to their homes in Kombolcha, Dessie and the environs.

And far in the highlands, shepherds (Ere'gnas), as they have done for hundreds of years, sing aloud songs of love, romance and simple village lives as they lead their cattle back to the "berets' before darkness sets in.

And the land of Wello and town of Bati slip to the doldrums of a quiet evening and week....only to awaken next Monday when it will be one more market day.


Belu melkam sa'mnt le-hulachinim.

Samuel Kinde

(*) - reference - Ethiopian Journeys - P. Henze.

VARIETY COLUMN "...A column for Ethiopian culture, geography, History, literature, music, k'ne, humor, current affairs and the like...."

NUMBER 5 ---< < < < < For the EEDN community > > > > > > --- November 29, 1992

የጢያ ሃውልቶች??/ Stones of Tiya

የጢያ ሃውልቶች

የኢትዮጵያ ጥንታዊ ታሪክ የአርኪዮሎጂስት ጥናት እምብዛም አልተመለከተውም:: አሻራቸውን ይዘው የተቀመጡት እንደ አክሱም ላሊበላ ና የፋሲል ግንብ የመጀመሪያና የመጨረሻ የጥንታዊት ኢትዮጵያ ብቸኛ ምልክት ሆነው ይገኛሉ:: ነገር ግን የብዙ ሺህ አመታት ታሪክ ያላት ሃገር ኢትዮጵያ የህዝቦችዋን አንድነት የሚያንጸባርቁ ምስክሮች ብቅ ማለት ጀምረዋል:: ከዚህ በታች የሰፈረው መጣጥፍ የሰሜኑ የአክሱም ሃውልታት ደቡብ ኢትዮጵያም እንድነበሩ ያመላክታል::
ባቲ::

Stones of Tiya
Ethiopia offers myriad archaeological sites for the adventurous tourist to visit. Philip Briggs reports on one of the lesser-known rock stelae fields, south of Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia’s claim to be the richest archaeo-historical treasure trove in sub-Saharan Africa is difficult to dispute. From the myriad ancient hominid fossils that have been unearthed in the eastern deserts, to the Biblical-era giant stelae of Axum and medieval rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia’s overwhelming sense of history invites a response that is equal parts wonderment, disbelief and delighted speculation.

Only a handful of Ethiopia’s historical riches have drawn serious attention from the tourist industry, which means that independent-minded travellers are faced with an embarrassment of exciting and accessible off-the beaten-track options. A visit to one of the hundred-odd rock-hewn churches scattered around Tigray, or any of the country’s dozens of remote island and cliff-top monasteries, makes nonsense of the current media debate, prompted by the release of the film The Beach, about the way in which guidebooks and thronging backpacker trails have practically destroyed genuinely independent travel. Pack the whingers off to Ethiopia for a month, say I, forbid them from going anywhere near the country’s half-dozen semi-established tourist sites, and they’ll return home imbued with the sense of genuine discovery that is supposedly lost to the modern traveller.

A mere 100km by road from the capital Addis Ababa, and only 500m from a public transport route and local guest house, Tiya is the perfect example of the sort of accessible yet practically unvisited gem I’m talking about. Marking the northern limit of a belt of engraved obelisks that stretches right across southern Ethiopia, the Tiya stelae field consists of roughly 40 stones which stand between one and two metres high. Recent excavations revealed that the stones mark mass graves of both males and females who died between the ages of 18 and 30 and were laid to rest in a foetal position. Three engraved symbols predominate: circles, swords, and what appear to be podgy leaves rising on a stem from a rectangular base. The circles might represent the sun or moon, the swords speak for themselves, while the twin-leaves look like so-called false bananas, a type of plantain grown widely in the area. If the symbolism behind all this is open to speculation, so too is the nature of the people who erected the stelae. Local people associate the stones with the 15th Century Muslim leader Ahmed Gragn, but the non-Judaic symbols and greater age of the stones makes this unlikely. Like the much older and larger stelae at Axum — the only comparable constructions that I’m aware of in sub-Saharan Africa — the Tiya stelae appear to pre-date the local arrival of Christianity and to have been erected as grave markers. The southern stelae belt passes through the heart of the modern territory of the Gurage, whose language is closely affiliated to Tigrigna (the language spoken in Axum). This tempts one to ask whether these might be relics of a forgotten offshoot of the pre-Christian stelae-building tradition at Axum.Only 30km north of Tiya lies the most southerly of Ethiopia’s rock-hewn churches, Adadi Maryam, a subterranean monolith excavated in the 13th Century at about the same time that Tiya’s stones must have been erected. Visiting the two sites in conjunction creates the strange feeling that one is crossing the medieval boundary between pagan and Christian Ethiopia. But where Adadi Maryam is very much an active site of worship, the stones of Tiya stand mute and mysterious, neither revered nor feared by the local children who treat the stelae field as a playground. These are simple constructions, it is true, and yet the repetitive intent that lies behind the crude engravings is deeply haunting.

Perhaps it is the sense of discovery I referred to earlier, but Tiya’s impact on me was every bit as powerful as that of the more famous and grandiose stelae of Axum.

Philip Briggs is a regular contributor to Travel Africa. He is the author of eight African guide books.


Tiya factfile

Tiya is about 30km from Melka Awash, a village 60km or more south of Addis Ababa. Cars can be hired (with drivers) in Addis but are expensive. There is direct public transport to Tiya. This leaves from the main Autobus Terra in Mercato before 9am. After that it is necessary to pay full fare on the Butajira bus and ask to be dropped off at Tiya.

The engraved stelae lie about 500m from Tiya. Coming from Addis Ababa the turn-off is on the left side near the telecommunication signpost. Follow this for about 200m, turn right. The stelae are enclosed behind a fence on the rise ahead.

The rock-hewn church of Adadi Maryam lies west of the Butajira road on a small hill five minutes walk from the village of Adadi. The important stone-age site, about a 20-minute walk from Melka Awash, is also of interest.

The Awash River gorge, with its three low, but powerful, waterfalls, is worth exploring if you have time.

There are dollar-a-night hotels in Butajira, Tiya and Melka Awash and a slightly smarter establishment on the main road. However most visitors, other than backpackers, return to Addis Ababa.

Published in Travel Africa Magazine
Edition Twelve: Summer 2000
This edition and subscriptions are available via the Travel Africa Magazine website.