Lalibela and the Onset of Timkat

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Gondar to Lalibela

Timkat

Timkat, the celebration of the baptism of Jesus, is almost here, and there was chanting all night outside our Gondar hotel.  I took this recording at dawn from our hotel window; you can hear chanting from two directions:

The preparations for Timkat in Gondar included an enormous temporary wooden grandstand made from eucalyptus poles, but we left for Lalibela this morning and we will celebrate the holiday there.  It was a short flight over the Lasta mountains.  According to our information, “Lalibela is one of the most important religious and historic sites in all of Africa and the Christian world. Ethiopia was the first country to officially adopt Christianity as a state religion, and Lalibela (then known as Roha), was the capital.”  We had lunch, and I ordered the traditional platter:

Lalibela is famous for its monolithic churches, carved into the ground from the top down, from a single block of rock, dating from the 12^th century.  They were built this way as defense against visibility which would make them vulnerable to destruction from non-Christian (Muslim) attackers.  King Lalibela (1162-1221) was the Emperor of Ethiopia responsible for the invention and creation of the churches, which are spectacular!  We visited the largest, Beta Medhane Alem.  Note the pillars—there are 72 in total:

Here’s Paul at the base to give scale:

Each of the 12 churches is preparing to remove it’s copy of the Ark of the Covenant in a ceremony which will end with a parade where all the arks come together.  Inside this church, the ceremony had been going for hours in preparation.  We arrived shortly before the Ark left the church, as the ceremony was coming to a climax:

Here’s what it sounded like.  Note the number of priests holding and shaking the sistrum:

We left to get a good place to watch the exit of the Ark from the church.  Note the very fancy umbrellas which are used only at Timkat, and represent Moses’ Tent of Meeting:

 In this video, note the red carpet, which is in many pieces.  Young men roll up the portion which is behind the procession and run to the front to unroll it so that the priests are always walking on red carpet as they move towards the gathering point where all 12 of the Arks will meet:

Our hotel is located across from the entrance to the park-like area where the Arks will spend the night and the Timkat service will be held tomorrow.  We went in to see the location—the baptismal pool is in the shape of a cross; the stands for viewing are on the left.  The pool was being filled when we visited:

Meanwhile, all the Arks were being brought to a point about 1 km. from this entrance, and the giant parade of Arks was assembling.  We went up to the roof of our hotel to await the arrival, and felt the excitement rising.  While waiting, groups of young men spun in circles, waving their prayer sticks:

Finally, the parade of Arks began to arrive:

It was a riot of sound and color.  Note the Obama Gift Shop across the street:

 

As the parade entered the park, Paul and I went down and joined the crowd.  Inside, there were many thousands of people, some in groups, some alone. 

The priests and bishops gathered around a red carpet on which were the Arks:

Sermons were being given, and the people closest to the red carpeted area seemed mostly to be paying attention, but elsewhere other celebratory activities were going on:

Some of the priests had platform-like headgear which we never figured out:

We went back into the hotel.  The celebration, with chanting, will go on all night, and the church service will start at 4:30 AM tomorrow.  We are invited to get up and go; so far only two of the nine of us seem likely to do so.  We are warned that at the service there will be lots of water sprayed on the crowd as the crowd celebrates the baptism of Jesus.