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Ethiopian Easter, or Fassika, takes place in Ethiopian Orthodox churches throughout the country. It usually falls after Easter in the western calendar. It is a much more important festival than Christmas, and involves 55 days of severe fasting without meat or dairy. (They do get weekends “off,” so it’s really 40 days, like Catholic Lent.)
The NY Times had a great article on Ethiopian food in the Travel section today. Click here to check it out, and don’t forget to watch the fabulous slide show.
In Egypt (on the African continent, northwest of Ethiopia, and bordering the Meditteranean, for the geographically challenged), the ancient Greeks (who took over Egypt with the Ptolemies…after the pharaohs) were baffled by the flooding of the Nile each summer, to which they could set their proverbial watches. Before those times, the Egyptians themselves just figured the flooding was the result of a god bringing fertility to the land. But what was really happening?
There is a fair amount of rain in the Ethiopian Highlands. Lake Tana drains into the Blue Nile, which winds down out of the highlands with majestic falls.
We’ve decided that we’d like to adopt an infant (0-12 months old). We’re also willing to adopt a sibling up to three years old (or a twin – yikes!). At least that’s the plan. But age is an interesting topic in international adoption, and it’s often based on guesstimation. In Ethiopia, age is complicated by a totally different calendar system than ours.
For those of us who attended California public schools, a little geographical orientation:
Our kiddos are somewhere in Ethiopia, which is a landlocked country on the Horn of Africa. It’s about three times the size of California or two Texases. Yeeehaw!
Ethiopia is surrounded by Eritrea and Djibouti to the north, Somalia to the west, Kenya to the south, and Sudan to the east.
In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we all saw images of Ethiopian drought and famine in photos and news footage. I (Dan) know that, until recently, I held a perception of Ethiopia as a dry desert-like wasteland full of starving nomads roaming the country. I guess it depends on which way the camera is pointing.
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