Melkam Fasika! Happy Ethiopian Easter!

The Ethiopian Easter is celebrated this weekend by the Orthodox Church. A significant religious festival that takes place throughout the country with beautiful and heartfelt mass services. This Sunday, the 55 days period of fasting known as Hudade or Abye Tsome will come to an end. During this time, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are deprived of eating dairy products or meat and the first meal of the day is normally taken after 3 pm. Happy Ethiopian Eastern! Let’s find out more about this joyful festival 😉

Fasika is the Ge’ez (the liturgy language used by Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) word for Easter and it is one of the most important religious celebrations in the country. This festival commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus starts off on Good Friday, with the preparation for the breaking of the long fasting time. During this weekend, many Ethiopians will prove their faith by fasting uninterruptedly until the end of the mass service that starts on Saturday at 6 pm and ends around 3 am. At this time, the faithful will go home to celebrate the risen Christ by breaking the fast with chicken, which was slaughtered at midnight for this important occasion.

On the next day, Easter Sunday, Ethiopians will gather with their relatives to continue the feast with delicious meat dishes such as the popular Doro Wat, a chicken stew prepared with a mixture of local spices and accompanied by the indispensable sourdough-risen flatbread injera, the basis of the Ethiopian food.

If you have the chance to witness the Ethiopian Easter, we invite you to visit a mass service on Saturday, light up a candle and listen the harmonious and emotional religious ritual. And if you want to have the chance to see this magnificent celebration or  other religious festivals, start planning your tour to Ethiopia with us.

Melkam Fasika! Happy Easter!

Inside Ethiopia Tours