Timkat'ed In...

We missed the chance to be snowed in, but the Ethiopian holiday, Timkat (celebration of the Epiphany, read more about it on Wikipedia) provided the snowed in experience.

From all reports, no one was supposed to drive from midday Saturday through Sunday afternoon. We’d heard that a processional would march with replicas of the ark of the covenant to and from different Orthodox churches. Although a bit fuzzy on the details, we went out to wait on our street to witness the parade pass.

There are hours of marching and the models of the arks of the covenant are carried by priests, who walk on red carpet the entire way. As they pass, the carpets are rolled, loaded into trucks and then moved in front of the process. From what I could tell, there seemed to be three long carpets.

These men had a big job.

And we didn’t have to wait much longer for this scene to come around the corner.

Thousands of people poured out from every crevice. As the crowds passed, many of the spectators joined the processional, walking to the church. 

Okay, don’t just use your eyes to imagine this, imagine the sound of drums, dancing, chanting, singing and festivity that hung in every inch of air.

It was mesmerizing.

And beautiful.

And the buzz grew as the models of the ark drew nearer.

And this is about when the police plus the throngs of marchers moved us along the wall.

As the arks passed, there were men, rolling up the carpet behind them.

Videos to come...