Ethiopian style of  feasting Easter

BY WORKU BELACHEW

Fasika, Ethiopian Easter, falls after a long fasting season for most Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. The holiday is also celebrated by almost all followers of Christianity. The former get cutoff from luxury foods such as poultry products, meat, butter, cheese or in short all  animal products for almost two months.  During the fasting season, traditional dishes grace dining tables. Few of the mouth watering and famous foods are these:  Suf-fetfet, a   sunflower butter mixed with salted water, chopped green paper, and pieces of  Injera;   Siljo, mustered seed and beans powder mixed with garlic and warm water to prepare a hot testing food; Sheembra Assa, a spiced chickpea dough fried  in different shapes such as star, circle, bird... and cooked with a delicious sauce. People often enjoy fasting foods during fast season. When these foods served in a tray, the look and smell  whet one's appetite, not to mention the unique test of the dishes when taken. In most restaurants of  Addis, for instance, fasting food buffet is common during such season.

Most amazingly, after the fasting season is over, such foodstuff are uncommon on every body's dish as if they are prescribed only for fasting season.

The eve of Fasika hosts two remarkable events, the hustle and bustle of holiday market and the prayers/service at churches. During the eve of a holiday, market places host the busiest crowed. Usually heads of  families visit nearby markets to buy stuffs ranging from  bull, goats, sheep, chicken to eggs vegetables,  spices, fresh grass and so on. It is common to hear the bleats of goats and sheep,  the bellows of oxen, and the crow of  chicken in the market place, particularly during the eve. The night of eve on the other hand is a time to be in churches for the faithful. Most Christians worship their God according to their doctrines. After the conclusion of  prayers/service at Churches,  Orthodox Christians for instance,  walk to their homes, holding  candle lamps on their way. They break their fast at about 3:00am dinning foods such as  delicious Doro wot, chicken sauce, cheese and the likes.

At daybreak, individuals slay goat or sheep to enjoy the day with mutton while in groups people slay bulls in a ceremony called Kircha.  People living the same neighborhood, contribute money for kircha and buy bulls to divide the meat  and share  among themselves. This is very ceremonious event even more symbolic  than merely taking the shares home. The elders slay the bull, divide and share the meat. They never use scales  when they share, they simply weigh the meat on their two hands. After sharing the meat, no one rushes to  home. A small ceremony goes before the kircha gets concluded, that is dining liver in raw.  No lab test goes to the liver before it is served, just the elders check whether it is healthy or not with eyes and hands.  If healthy, they chop it into pieces and serve it with Mitmitta, a hot paper powder,  and this ceremony is accompanied by a local alcoholic drink Areke. Females also prepare a delicious fried meat. Finally the ceremony gets over at about eleven in the morning.

People dividing and sharing meat

Most households brew Tella, Tej or Areke, local alcoholic drinks, and bake a special bread to coluor the holiday. And the head of a family, during a breathtaking coffee ceremony where fresh grass covers the coffee table and a rooms floor, and smoke from an incense burner fills the room,  makes a short prayer and his/her good wishes, then  cuts the bread into loves.

Ethiopian coffee ceremony

Generally, holidays are a unique moment for a family reunion. A family in Ethiopian context does not include parents and children only. Let me quote late Madiba for this purpose. In his autobiography, he wrote that, we African do not have half brothers and half sisters, we have only brothers and sisters. To put his own golden words:  “In African culture, the sons and daughters of one's aunts or uncles are considered brothers and sisters, not cousins. We do not make the same distinctions among relations practiced by Europeans. We have no half brothers or half sisters. My mother's sister is my mother; my uncle's son is my brother; my brother's child is my son, my daughter.”

This utterly works in Ethiopia. Individualism is not our fashion rather collectivism is the culture. Thus, members of a family gets together during this day and the feast.

It is also common to invite people in the neighborhood to one's home for a lunch or dinner. In most Ethiopian tradition  dinning from the same tray is widely practiced, it shows Ethiopian tradition of collectivism, sign of  love, respect and so on.  When you eat together, you need to make yourself ready to eat from the fingers/hands of others, this is in Amharic called Gursha. Just feel free to feed others with your fingers too. It is a symbol of love, respect. It is also a symbol not to betray others. To put it another way,  the same hand that feeds friends never brings harm to them.

In Ethiopian culture, you do not only get served with foods and drinks but compassionate reception also accompanies an invitation. When you eat and drink, the host  repeatedly and kindly beg you to eat more, saying kind words such as “please eat”, “you are not eating well, what happens, is not it delicious?”... and puts sauce, Injera... or whatever now and then on the tray. When your glass is empty, you don't have to worry, the host soon notices that and fill it to its brim. Unless you tell the host as you have taken  too enough, the food and drink stay on the table.

During Fasika and of course in most holidays, foodstuff prepared form meat dominate a dinning table. Kurt— raw meat with spicy sauce such as, Awaze, Qochquocha, Data, Mitmita— Kitfo,  menaced meat mixed with butter and spices eaten in raw, boiled meat, fried meat and highly spiced meat sauce are common.

Words could not demonstrate everything, multi ethnic Ethiopia with diverse culture embraces, it is home for  an ocean of traditional foods, drinks still unheard and unseen in other corner of the world.   One can enjoy the warm reception of Ethiopians and most of these just visiting the land, now also icon for its peace and stability.