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All photos and videos Copyright © 2026 Ted P. Eugenis
All photos and videos Copyright © 2026 Ted P. Eugenis
These photos were taken in Bahir Dar, Amhara, Ethiopia, in mid January 2026. Timkat is the celebration of Epiphany in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The ceremony was held on a large field where several thousand people streamed in. Many walked there from villages as far as 30 kilometers away. Scaffolding was set up with hoses so the priests could provide a water blessing, common in Christian Orthodox religion.
Days before and after the Timkat ceremony, the street was filled with different groups, marching, singing, chanting, and the day after the ceremony, the procession of the Ark of the Covenant was in process which I stumbled into after having a beer on the shores of Lake Tana. I also visited a back alley areke liquor bar, took a boat ride to visit monasteries on Lake Tana, and bought old music cassette tapes. On the streets, there were coffee stalls, vendors sold sugar cane, nuts, noise makers, and the grass cuttings that are used on the ground for the coffee ceremony. In Addis, I saw old friends, made new ones, and ventured past open pits with rebar sticking out, concrete dust filled streets, workers are on bamboo scaffolding while at street level they use hammers, chisels, picks and shovels, as heavy equipment operators block streets, bulldoze buildings, flatten gravel, and spray asphalt. Addis is a construction zone, buildings are torn down every night, new ones are being built and everyone wonders where the money is coming from. Farther out from the area near the airport, Bole, 10 story buildings sit half built from 2020. Still, the city center buzzes with 18 hours of construction. (The videos I post next week will bolster this assertion.) I did not venture outside of Addis or Bahir Dar due to "security concerns". If you are unfamiliar with the situation in Ethiopia, read my previous reports from 2022 and 2025. The Amhara region is particularly volatile. The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) rules the day, FANO rules the night, and then there are the bandits. This was my fourth trip to Ethiopia bringing water purification devices (2022, 2023, 2025, and January 2026) I trained SOS Children's Villages personnel on the units in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar. I prepared a report and proposal framework for going forward with a more thorough program. If you'd like a copy, please contact me. TIMKAT Timkat, one of the most important festivals in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, is celebrated each January to commemorate Christ’s baptism and blends more than 1,600 years of Christian tradition with older Ethiopian water‑blessing customs. The festival begins with the Ketera processions, as priests carry the tabot—replicas of the Ark of the Covenant—through streets filled with hymns, sistras, and drums toward rivers or pools where night vigils unfold in tents lit by prayer and chant. Before dawn, the high priest blesses the water in a moment symbolizing divine light entering the world, after which crowds are sprinkled or immerse themselves in acts of renewal before celebrating with dancing, drumming, feasting, and the triumphant return of the tabots. Rooted in the Gospel story yet resonant with pre‑Christian beliefs linking water to cleansing and fertility, Timkat expresses a cosmic vision in which all waters are sanctified, the tabot embodies God’s covenantal presence, and spiritual renewal is tied to hopes for rain, prosperity, and harmony between community, land, and sacred history. Read more Timkat of Ethiopia: Epiphany & Baptismal Renewal |
Alem Worku runs a facility where disabled people learn how to draw and get informed about the broader Ethiopian culture. She has a disability and writes children books (that are good for adults, too) about how to be more inclusive of people with physical challenges. Her program focuses on helping street kids and people with disabilities. Her vision, after more than a decade of toiling is to have a state- of- the-art facility that will accommodate more people.
ALEM ART CENTER Alem Worku Mobile: +251 911 361338 Telegram: @alemartschool Website/social media Mulugeta Workye ethiopianphotographytours.com +251 911 056456 eptchoice@gmail.com Mulu is fixer/tour guide/et all He runs a tour business and has 4WD vehicles and associates all over Ethiopia. (I also know his older brother, Abeba, a tour guide in Lalibela.) |
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