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UNESCO
Should Recognize Ethiopian Epiphany as Intangible
Cultural Heritage
Ghelawdewos
Araia, PhD
January 24, 2015
UNESCO
has already recognized Ethiopia’s most popular
Meskel festival (the founding of the True Cross
holiday) as one of the world’s intangible
heritages and Ethiopians were appreciative of the
constructive undertaking rendered by the UN agency
for education, science, and culture. There is no
doubt that Ethiopians would be more appreciative
if UNESCO recognizes Timket (Ethiopian epiphany),
which is as popular as Meskel, as yet another
intangible Ethiopian heritage.
During
the celebration of Timket on January 19, 2015, in
honor of the Ethiopian customary tradition of
exchanging good wishes for the holiday, one friend
texted me a poster of Timket festival embellished
with Ethiopian flags and accompanied by a
quotation from Ephesians 4:5 that reads, “One
Lord, one religion, one baptism”.
After I read the quote, I immediately
sensed some fallacy with respect to
‘religion’, because if the latter was indeed
part of the Ephesians quote, it would have
categorically dismissed other religions and also
disparaged the intent of the original message of
Ephesians. I am not a Biblical scholar and my
knowledge of the latter is limited, but my
suspicion nonetheless paid off. Ephesians 4:5
actually reads, “One Lord, one faith, one
baptism”.
In
point of fact, the “one baptism” rendering
applies to all Christians all over the world as
baptism is observed universally across the board
in Christian communities. However, Timket festival
is characteristically different from other
Christian observations of the same holiday,
because it is a religious as well as a secular
festival in Ethiopia. It is in fact a grand social
and cultural holiday in which Ethiopians of all
ages, gender, and ethnic groups gather and
celebrate in an incredibly festive mood.
To
Ethiopian Christians and other Christians around
the world, epiphany symbolically signifies the
baptism of Jesus Christ at the River Jordan. The
Ethiopian Timket, however, goes beyond symbolic
religious virtue and embodies the many cultural
values and ethos of almost unimaginable scope.
The
faithful Ethiopians, thousands upon thousands of
them, will converge near a body of water or Timkete-Bahir
(pool, river, stream, or artificial fountain)
to observe the celebration of the divine-liturgy,
as early as 2 am in the morning. On the 18th
of January (known as Kerem
or eve of epiphany) the faithful have already
taken their spaces around the water and they will
not return home until the real celebration takes
place on the 19th of January every year
(or on the 20th of January on a leap
year).
Although
the faithful come to be blessed by the sacred
water, they also genuinely come to escort the
Tabots (replicas of the Ark of the Covenant) of
their respective churches and monasteries.
Theoretically, all churches are supposed to
assemble at the Timket venue, but it may not be
practical to bring all Tabots, given the limited
spaces and the multitude of the faithful that have
flocked into the extremely crowded water area.
Addis Ababa alone has 160 churches and
monasteries; the historic city of Gonder, famous
for Timket celebration, is also known for its 44 Adbarat
(churches and monasteries); and Lalibela is
the proud home of the 11 rock-hewn churches, which
are fascinations of the world. If we add
Yimrehane-Christos to the Lalibela cluster of
churches then we would have 12 famous churches
that host thousands of people every Timket
festival. In any case, even if all Tabots of all
churches may not sojourn on the epiphany waters,
most of the churches would represent themselves at
the Timkete-Bahir.
In
Tigray, the northernmost regional state of
Ethiopia, where civilization of antiquity and the
Ethiopian Christendom began, there are hundreds
upon hundreds of churches that observe Timket
every year, and of these churches 126 are
rock-hewn. Unfortunately, out of the total
rock-hewn churches in Tigray, 26 are ruined, 9 of
them have become domiciles for monks, but 94 are
still serving Sunday congregation and are actively
engaged in sermons and other services.1
The
Tabots of each church will be granted a temporary
abode, that is, a designated tent; and no two
saints will dwell under the same roof, though they
could share contiguous turfs. Thus, by just
counting the tents, one could safely figure out
the number of churches represented in the epiphany
squares, and for a diligent scholar or tourist it
might require an extra effort to know the names of
each Tabot associated with a corresponding saint.
At
dawn, one of the high priests, in an effort to
bless the water, will immerse the cross into the
water while at the same time extinguishing a
burning candle in the same body of water. The
water and the candle are perceived as sacred by
the pilgrims.
Following this ritual, the priest sprinkles
the water unto the Me’emenan
(believers), who know very well that they are not
being baptized but commemorating the baptism of
Jesus Christ, although the ritual signifies for
them as sort of a purifying and cleansing magic.
The
sprinkling of the sacred water is accompanied by
hymn, first produced in the early seventh century
CE by a literati genius known as Yared, who by the
way is the first to come up with the writing of
musical notations and systematically decoding the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ecclesiastical
chants. On top of hymn, the sprinkling of water is
also accompanied by the symmetrical dances and
drumming of the beautifully dressed priests, and
by young men dressed like angels and blowing
trumpets.
After
the baptism is over, all churches will go back to
their permanent abodes, again escorted by hundreds
of chanting and dancing believers; and the only
Tabot that stays around until the entire festival
is over is the Tabot of the Archangel St. Michael.
At the end of the religious Timket festival, St.
Michael also returns but the crowd that came to
celebrate stay and continue the secular Timket,
which is fundamentally and ostensibly different
from the baptism of Jesus festival. It seems that
Ethiopians have devised such a festival for the
sole purpose of converging in one spot in order to
exchange cultural values such as ethnic dances.
The
secular Timket is a culturally rooted Ethiopian
holiday that is transmitted from generation to
generation, and it is largely articulated by
competition of dances between the various ethnic
groups of Ethiopia. The Timket festival is an
opportune moment in which, for example, the dances
and songs of the Amhara, Tigray, Oromo, Gurage,
and other nationalities are performed; at times to
the point of frenzy. This is also the time where
Ethiopians of all ages and sexes dance freely and
wildly in order to demonstrate their ability of
choreography and by default attract the opposite
sex. In fact, the young men and women deliberately
participate in the Timket festival with the
intention to find a partner, and if possible a
life partner. The Timket crowd is aware that the
festival provides an excellent opportunity to find
a boyfriend and/or a girlfriend, but those who
come to exploit such an opportunity cannot afford
to be bystanders; as a matter of course, they must
articulate their wishes in the form of dances in
front of all that have gathered and if possible
cast lemon fruits at each other to demonstrate
love and affection. Out of this spontaneous and
orderly chaos emanate some successful couples who
would be destined to evolve a fiancé/fiancée
relationship, and some of them are even engaged on
the Timket arena and in the midst of the crowd.
Because
young men and women Ethiopians are aware of the
social relations of secular Timket, they come with
their best dress for the day. This practice of
looking good in terms of dress and enhancing
beauty is reinforced by the Ethiopian proverb Le’timket
Yalhone Libs Yi’be’tates (Amharic) or Ne’timket
ZeyKon Qemish Yi’be’tates (Tigrigna), and
roughly translated into English it means, ‘Let
this cloth be shredded if it is not meant for
Timket’. The
proverb clearly indicates how serious and
altruistic Ethiopians are when it comes to their
epiphany holiday.
More
than the young men, it is the young women who look
sharp during the Timket festival. On top of their
nature endowed beauty, the Ethiopian women are
overwhelmingly crafty in putting makeups together
and blend them unto their beautiful faces. They
put on traditional makeups such as Khul
(Amharic) or Kuhli
(Tigrigna) as shades (nowadays modern makeups as
well) and make the best hairstyle, preferably Shuruba
(Ethiopian hairdressing) and some are anointed
with oil on their faces to the extent of dripping
all over their face and necks. The latter practice
is now increasingly phasing out except in the
rural areas.
The
Ethiopian women who beautify themselves during
Timket are not pretentious in their deliberate
magnetic appearance. They have to seduce the young
men and the latter are cognizant of the romantic
appeal of their female counterparts. Both of them,
tacitly confirm that Timket is for a relationship
of the opposite sexes, and it is either to
initiate new relationship or an opportunity for
individuals who were never married to find a
partner and settle down. The young men who
participate in the Timket festival also exhibit
different performances such as holding long sticks
painted with green, yellow, and red (the Ethiopian
flag), and while dancing they sing Timket songs
such as Hay Loga Ho and Mariam
Aster’eyo (the revealing Virgin Mary) in an
effort to enjoy the undivided attention of the
beautiful women around them.
In
Timket, the Ethiopians say, even some individuals
who never socialize will mingle with the crowd and
they are “baptized” by the festive mood, and
as a result they are renewed, rejuvenated, and
rehabilitated. They in fact would become a new
person and would have a chance to meet some
chemistry in a relationship. One Amharic song that
depicts well the above scenario in general and the
renewed persons in particular is Kermo
YiMetal Yal’mote Sew (a person who is not
dead will eventually show up after a long hiatus).
Metaphorically, the song implies that even
ostracized, aloof, paranoid, and “dead” people
will mingle in the Timket festival.
Timket
festival, thus, is not simply a religious holiday
as pointed out above. It is very much a
construction and reaffirmation of phenomena,
relationship, love, and a resolution to exploit
and meaningfully utilize what the Ethiopian social
milieu provides and permits. In the tradition of
interpretations of cultures and the legacy of
Clifford Greetz’ s “thick description”, I
have made an attempt to expound the true meaning
of Timket festival in Ethiopia. If a culture of
any given people is superficially explained
(“thin description”), it could very well be a
distortion of that culture and also a misleading
methodology especially for students who are
engaged in ethnographic and historical research.
On the other hand, if we employ “thick
description”, we will end up grasping the
essence, meaning, and structure of a given culture
and it is in the latter sense that I wanted to
appeal to UNESCO to seriously consider the
Ethiopian epiphany as an intangible cultural
heritage.
Instead
of simply appealing, however, I like to engage
UNESCO with its own definition of tangible
heritage and then come up with my own rationale.
What is intangible cultural heritage? According to
UNESCO,
The
term ‘cultural heritage has changed content
considerably in recent decades, partially owing to
the instruments developed by UNESCO. Cultural
heritage does not end at monuments and collection
of objects. It also includes traditions and living
expressions inherited from our ancestors and
passed on to our descendants, such as oral
traditions, performing arts, social practices,
festive events, knowledge and practices concerning
nature and the universe or the knowledge and
skills to produce traditional crafts.2
On
top of the above definition, UNESCO also defines
intangible cultural heritage as 1) traditional,
contemporary and living at the same time; 2)
inclusive; 3) representative; and 4)
community-based.3
Before
a general consensus on the definition of
intangible heritage was agreed upon, an important
International Conference on Globalization and
Intangible Cultural Heritage, jointly sponsored by
UNESCO and the UN University in Tokyo, was
convened on August 26-27, 2004, in Tokyo, Japan.
For the Conferences proceedings, the Introduction
was contributed by Koichuro Matsuura, the
Director-General of UNESCO and his arguments, as
shown below, furthermore reinforce my own
rationale that UNESCO must indeed recognize
Ethiopian epiphany as intangible heritage. Here is
how Matsuura puts it:
Cultural
dialogue and the preservation of cultural
diversity has always been part and parcel of the
mandate of UNESCO, as embodied in its
constitution….intangible cultural heritage
represents the major wealth of countries of the
South, where it is alive and rich. Now that it is
beginning to be recognized as equally important as
the physical or material heritage that has
developed primarily in the North, there is a
resulting awareness of the fact that countries of
the South have an extraordinary cultural heritage
too.4
The
Ethiopian epiphany or Timket is quite a fitting in
both of UNESCO’s definitions and Matsuura’ s
convincing advocacy on behalf of Southern
countries heritage, of which Ethiopia is one
country rich of such heritages, including of
course its unique epiphany . In fact, as I have
explained above, all the criteria set forth by
UNESCO are met by the Ethiopian Timket, and for
this reason alone UNESCO should recognize this
community-based, idiosyncratic but shared Ethiopian
tradition as intangible cultural heritage.
Notes:
1Ghelawdewos
Araia, Cultures
That We Must Preserve and Reject (two volumes
in Tigrigna and Amharic) 2005/2008. Books can be
found via www.africanidea.org
2UNESCO
official website
3Ibid
4Koichuro
Matsuura, International Conference on
Globalization and Intangible Cultural Heritage,
August 26-27, 2004, Tokyo, Japan
All
Rights Reserved. Copyright © Institute of
Development and Education for Africa (IDEA), 2015.
Dr. Ghelawdewos Araia can be contacted via dr.garaia@africanidea.org
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