Timkat

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Timkat festival in Gonder
A priest carries tabot at the Timkat festival in Gonder

Timkat ( Amharic : ጥምቀት; [ t'ɨmk'ət ] - "baptism") is the Ethiopian Orthodox festival of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan and the epiphany . The festival takes place on January 19th (January 20th in leap years ), i.e. H. on the 10th day of the Ethiopian Ṭərr month . The festival is known for its re-enactments of baptism (similar to Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land who re-enacted baptism in the Jordan). These were often misinterpreted by early European travelers as actual baptisms, which (as rebaptisms ) would be invalid after the Confession of Nicaea-Constantinople , since Christians profess only one baptism for the forgiveness of sins .

During the Timkat ceremony, Tabot tablets - replicas of the Ark of the Covenant that can be found in every Ethiopian altar (comparable to western altar stones) - are wrapped in elaborately decorated cloths and carried on their heads by priests in processions. The tabot represent the appearance of Jesus as the Messiah when he came to the Jordan for baptism. The ceremony is celebrated in the early hours of the morning (around 2 a.m.) near a river or pool of water. At dawn the water is blessed and sprinkled on the participants in the ceremony. Some of them go into the water and submerge in it, symbolically renewing their baptismal vows. Around noon, the tabots are brought back to the churches in processions with chants and dances. The big Timkat celebration in the northern Ethiopian city of Gonder at the basin of the emperor Fasilides with several thousand participants, of which several hundred (almost exclusively young men) jump into the basin after the consecration of the water, and sprinkle the bystanders with water is unique .

literature

  • Donald N. Levine: Wax & Gold. Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL et al. 1965, p. 63.

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