Timket ― Epiphany in Ethiopia

Timket, Ethiopia’s Feast of Epiphany, is one of the highest and holiest holidays in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian calendar and is celebrated on 19th January every year (on 20th January if it is a leap year). This year as usual, millions of Ethiopians will celebrate the holiday in enthusiastic style with three days of festival, beginning on the eve of Timket with awe-inspiring processions.

Ketera: 18th January

The celebration of Timket starts on the afternoon of 18th January, known as ‘Ketera’, the day when the tabot from each church makes procession, accompanied by priests, church’s followers and tourists, to the place where Timket will be celebrated the next day. The place is usually the nearest river, lake or pond where prayers and the communal baptism will be taken place by the priests on Timket.

The procession is attended by chanting and dancing crowds in dazzling white traditional dress, which contrasts with the colors of the ceremonial robes and sequined velvet umbrellas of the priests. The tabots stay overnight near the water and ceremonies continue overnight.

Timket/ Epiphany: 19th January

The main Timket celebration starts the next morning, when the ceremony begins with pre-sunrise rituals, which include Kidan (Morning Prayer), Mahlét (Hymn), Qidassie (Morning Mass), and Wereb (EOTC’s special singing). Then follows the blessing and sprinkling of blessed water on the assembled congregation in commemoration of Christ’s baptism in the hands of John the Baptist, symbolizing a resurrection to a new life in Christ, according to Christians’ belief.

It takes the better part of the day before the procession breaks up to return the Tabots to their respective churches in the afternoon. By afternoon, all the Tabots (except the Tabot from St. Michael’s Church, if there exists in that vicinity), are returned to their churches in a procession with the priests and young people animated and leaping like King David in the Bible.