Melkam Fasika!
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 06/Apr/2010 04:43, 34 days ago
Happy Easter!Easter (Fasika) marks the end of a 55 day fast in Ethiopia where the Orthodox Christians have abstained from any animal products (meat, eggs, milk etc) - quite an impressive feat considering their love for meat in this country! Some really strict orthodox also abstained from alcohol during this period and also abstained from any physical contact of any kind during holy week (another significant challenge in a country where you normally shake hands, shoulder bash or kiss several dozen people on an average day!). The fast officially ends at about 3am on Sunday after a long church service. Rather than go to bed most people begin gorging on meat immediately after the service. By 9am the streets were lined with small piles of goats skins. I headed to Addis, for the Easter weekend, on Friday. I always enjoy coming into Addis just before a big feast day because the whole town is buzzing with people doing last minute shopping and thousands of bleating goats and flapping chickens line the streets awaiting their destiny. Often any taxi journey through town at this time is shared with at least one live goat or chicken.On Sunday most of my Addis friends spent the morning eating doro wot (chicken stew) or tibs (goat meat) with their landlords, maids or guards. I decided not to join them this time and instead went to the International Church in Addis which was very enjoyable and certainly less filling. I was staying at Joanne’s this weekend and on Sunday afternoon we invited 8 other volunteers round for a meal. It was supposed to be lunch but I guess the fact that we sat down to eat at about 5pm means we had to rename it. It was a great crowd– our family away from home. Joanne and Maureen cooked up a feast! We had guacamole, humus and crackers followed by stuffed peppers and then a main course of veggie lasagne.Our Ethiopian friends definitely wouldn’t have approved... all that food and not a bit of meat in sight!