Christening

I had the opportunity to attend a Christening ceremony, in Molale, which is a 2-hour bus ride past my town, up a mountain.  From my understanding, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Religion, Christening Celebrations occur 80 days after birth for a female and 40 days after birth for a male.  The child is not given a name until the time of the Christening.  The ceremony had some similarities to baptisms I have attended in Loveland, but in many ways it was very unique.

Along with 10 other women, dressed in our finest cultural white dresses and net’elas (cultural white thin scarves with colored, patterned edges), we walked to the church in town.  I walked alongside the beautiful mother, Meskerem, who was glowing in her white and ivory dress and cultural scarf, with bright colored accents.  We linked arms as we walked and I supported her slightly, because she had not really left the house in the past 8 weeks, which is common in Ethiopian culture for the first several weeks after a birth.

Part of the group walking along the road on a beautiful day in Molale!

Once we reached the church, we entered a room nearby, where four religious (male) leaders began chanting and singing.  The mother and the baby sat in front of the other women, nearby to the religious leaders.  They also surrounded her as they continued to speak and chant.  After about 15 minutes, the baby was handed to one of the religious leaders and then was completely undressed. In a corner of the room, water from a metal tea pot was poured all over her, before she was wrapped in beautiful white blankets.

The church, where people are gathered to pray for several hours during the day.

Two of the four religious leaders read and chant, as the mother and baby sit in between them.

After two hours spent at the church, listening to chanting and singing, we all ate a piece of the traditional bread before heading back home for the celebration.  As we began the 15-minute walk home along the dirt road, the rain came (and truly here when it rains it POURS).  All dressed in white, the group of us, two people with babies strapped to their backs, ran for cover amidst large amounts of puddles and mud! It was certainly a memorable exit from the church!  After a combination of waiting under a shop awning and catching a ride on a bus for the last portion of the walk, we arrived back home.

It is a huge celebration, with a lot of preparation involved. Hundreds of people came over the course of two days for a meal (injera with various types of fasting- no animal products- wots- Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are in the midst of 15 days of fasting currently) and t’ela (a local beer made from barley).  The different wots included lentils, beets, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots.  The pots that were used were about a foot deep and 2 feet in diameter, cooked over massive charcoal stoves.

This cultural experience of a very important religious ceremony was very memorable and I feel lucky to have been a part of it!! I’ll never forget the evenings spent sitting around a charcoal fire laughing and talking in Amharic with the other women, or the Christening Ceremony itself!