Timkat in Lalibela

Monday, January 20, 2020

Timkat in Lalibela

Our hotel in Lalibela is perfectly located across the street from the entrance to the large park-like area where the Timkat festivities are.  Just inside that entrance are the large cross-shaped pool and adjacent concrete stands, and the hotel has a flat roof with a great view of the processions and the activities inside the event.  However, the hotel is of mediocre quality, and the beds have no mattresses.  At least, none like we’re used to.  The sheets cover a multi-layered leather-like substance, hard as a rock.  With the all-night chanting and the platform beds, we didn’t get much sleep.  The service started at 4:30 AM and would go on for six hours.  At 7:00 AM I went to the entrance where special candles which can be burned at both ends were being sold:

I braved the crowd:

 I was able to get a glimpse of the ceremony:

Here’s what it sounded like:

After a while I went back to the hotel and we had breakfast, after which we went up to the roof of the hotel.  The service ended at about 10:30 AM, and the people began streaming out of the venue. 

Chanting went on, and people began throwing buckets of water from the pool onto the crowd:

Ultimately, the Arks were brought out:

 The procession started back towards the point where it had assembled yesterday, but would make seven stops for extended periods of time along the way.  Here’s the activity at the first stop:

At the second stop, a long line of priests climbed up on a wall along the road:

Some higher-level priests in black faced them:

There was song-like chanting with drums and swaying:

The children were friendly:

Off to one side a group of women was doing their own thing.  Note the special Timkat hairdo on the lead singer:

 Slowly, the pace picked up:

The procession then reassembled to move on to the next stop, number 3 of 7.  We didn’t follow any longer, but rather went for lunch to an unusual restaurant on a hilltop just outside of town, owned and run by a Scottish woman:

After lunch we visited the most famous of the monolithic churches, and the last to be built, that of St. George, in the shape of a cross:

For a sense of scale, note there are people at the base of the church:

At this point, mid-afternoon, we could hear the procession bringing St. George’s Ark back to the church, so we left to avoid the crowd.  It was almost 12 hours since the start of the service at 4:30 AM and they were going strong!  Back at the hotel we rested a bit, and then went to the roof to have a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony.  There’s considerable ritual to it, and the women who do it start with raw beans, roast them and grind them with mortar and pestle, and make the coffee all at once.

Here’s the beginning of the roasting, over a coal fire:

While having the coffee, and as the chef was preparing a fire for our lamb barbecue dinner, we were entertained with Ethiopian song, the minstrel accompanying himself on a traditional one-string bowed instrument, the masenqo:

Finally, the chef cooked, we ate a lovely meal, and went to our rooms to try to sleep on the leather beds.  Tomorrow, our last full day, we’ll spend in Axum (or Aksum), allegedly the home of the real Ark of the Covenant.