Alex Little

Today, 19th Jan, was the Timket festival (Ethiopian Epiphany). I knew there was due to be a precession through town, but wasn’t sure what time, or where it would start and finish. so I headed into town mid morning to do some shopping and asked in the shops what was happening for the festival. By chance I’d arrived at the right time, the precession was due to be starting in a few minutes from a nearby square. Timket is the day when replicas of the Arc of Covenant are paraded through the streets, though no-one is even allowed the see the replicas (being kept under colourful wraps) in case they burst into flames at the sight of the arc (or somesuch fate).

Over the next 10 or 15 minutes, what must have been most of the town arrived in the square, with priests carrying colourful umbrellas. In my jeans, t-shirt and flip flops I didn’t feel quite appropriately dressed with everyone else wearing their best outfits. I managed to get some fairly decent photos by getting onto a shop roof – which also meant that I got quite a lot of attention from people staring and pointing. Though there were other people were up there taking photos, I was the only ferengi.

There didn’t appear to be a set route, at one point the precession split up by going down different streets, only to meet up again at Romanat square. After taking way too many more photos I decided to head home – it was also lunch time and I was getting hungry – but then it turned out the precession was going all the way up to near my house, so I kept with them. At the crossroads at the end of my road everyone stopped and the priests seemed to have a bit of discussion about which way to go, ending up coming right past my house – so I needn’t have left the house at all to see it!