Timkat: An Ethiopian Celebration of Epiphany

AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA | ON BEING
By Susan Leem

Priests carry models of the container said to hold
the Ten Commandments in brightly colored cloth. 

ETHIOPIA---Last week millions of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrated the feast of Timkat, the most important holiday for the Ethopian Orthodox faithful. Timkat began on January 19th and was celebrated for three days. Forty percent of Ethiopians identify as Christians and are among one of the oldest Christian traditions in the world. This celebration of the Epiphany remembers Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River with a ritual reenactment and parades with replicas of a holy relic — a relic many of us may know from the Steven Spielberg film Raiders of the Lost Ark. [link]

Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are showered with water from a cross-shaped
pool that was blessed by priests during Timkat. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images)