After a three-year hiatus occasioned by a devastating civil war, thousands of Ethiopians were able to descend on the northern city of Aksum to celebrate the ‘Timkat’ festival and religious holiday which will last for the next three days.
The Timkat Festival is an epiphany ceremony which celebrates the baptism of Jesus Christ, and is a very popular festival in the country as majority of Ethiopians belong to the Orthodox church. The Timkat is deeply important to them.
Celebrations of the festival were paused because of the civil war in the Tigray region, but with the end of the war almost a year ago, the people will now gather in the city of Aksum, which was the site of an alleged massacre soon after the war began in November 2020, and the country’s holiest city for Orthodox Christians.
Aksum is said to be the home of the Ark of the Covenant which contains the 10 commandments handed down to Moses by God.
Aksum has also become the focus for the annual festival of St Mary, and the city is a major pilgrimage destination with people coming from all over the country and beyond.
According to a description of the festival, the Timkat is a three-day event which starts with the procession of ‘tabots’ (holy replicas of the Ark of the Covenant) to a body of water in the afternoon of the first day.
In Aksum, this body of water is called the Bath of Queen Sheeba, with the festivities going on through the night with singing, praying and burning candles and incense.
The next morning, the crowds gather again for colorful ceremonies and more prayers. After this, the tabots are paraded back to the church and the church leader blesses the pool of water.
When the priests are done, it is finally time for the annual baptism, and at this point, every participant jumps into the holy water or try to get a bit of water on their forehead from the big water sprays.