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A week from now, followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church will celebrate the 2000th birthday of Jesus
Christ. It is well known that an error was made
somewhere in setting the Christian Calendar,
creating the controversy over the timing of the
Millennium celebration. Double celebrations cost
money, though "everyday is to be a holiday if you
have the money," as an old Amharic adage has it.
After all, do not we save to live and let live?
Last Thursday morning I went around to observe if
there is any indication in town of a holiday
shopping spree in the making. I saw none. But life
goes on as usual, the "Blue Enclave", as the fenced
plot at the hub of Piazza is sarcastically known by
cynics, is still occupying otherwise valuable space
right at the centre of the capital. The vision of a
multi-storey complex complete with supermarket has
withered away, allowing for the growth of the kernel
of an idea to leave it as a multi-modal transport
terminal, a proposal that has gained currency with
the recent announcement by the Prime Minister about
the government's plan to improve city transport
services. Piazza will be one ideal transfer or
terminal station.
The "Taxi Boys" are yelling and calling. The tarmac
road opposite. City Hall is cut across waiting for
repair. Motorists are forced to brake lest they
sustain damages. Pedestrians take the opportunity to
walk across the road, hands in pockets.
Lottery ticket vendors mill around trying to sell
tickets to the inattentive pedestrians passing by.
The only item in town that has seen no price hike,
the lottery tickets, sell like "cold cakes" if I may
have the liberty to say so. A vendor with whom I
have a nodding acquaintance walks all day long till
his socks stick to his burning feet - only to make a
profit of four or five Birr a day.
The only clue of a holiday is the manufactured
flowers and ornaments that swing from the doors and
windows of the little shops better known as the "Arkebe
Boutiques". Greeting and seasonal cards are seen
spread out on upside-down umbrellas.
For most Ethiopians, holidays are not routine
occasions for partying, eating, drinking, dressing
and merry-making. The religious holidays in
particular are moments for self-assessment, for
communicating with God, for maintaining self-respect
and a dignified life. Families visit each other and
swap gifts and tokens of affection in addition to
feasting together. Much as we like to celebrate the
birth of Jesus Christ, generally speaking, we
Ethiopians are not given much to celebrate our own
birthday like they do in other countries. Before
the introduction of modern education in Ethiopia,
particularly after the Fascist Italian invasion,
people didn't even know their exact date birth. They
used to refer to big occasions like deadly and
sweeping plagues or popular battles fought against
invaders, intruders or coronation days of kings or
Emperors. Even today, the bulk of the people in the
countryside in particular take little or no notice
of dates of birth, not to speak of celebrating
birthdays.
I remember the times when almost all the shop
windows in Piazza and many places downtown were
decorated with Merry Christmas greetings and signs
that flickered day and night. That was when there
were lots of "Faranji" shopkeepers like the
Armenians, Italians and the Greeks who had prominent
place in the business world then.
Those kinds of decorations that add glamour to the
holiday shopping spree are nowhere to be seen these
days. That is why I said business is as usual in and
around Piazza. So I took a taxi and went to Mercato
to see if there is any trace there of the on-coming
Christmas holiday celebration.
Mercato's cultural and social values and characters
are changing. You see high-flight buildings under
construction in the middle of the hustle and bustle
of business transactions taking place, some
exchanging so little as to be like swapping "air and
air". Most of the shops seem to be stocked full to
their capacity. Wholesalers count goods and textiles
and load their little trucks. Millions and millions
of Birr and/or euros and dollars change hands.
Near and around the Mearab Hotel area housewives buy
poultry and flour for the holiday. There are a lot
of women asking prices of grain and cereals and then
complaining about the answer. The country's
double-digit economic growth is a tremendous leap by
any count and a cause of some increases in price, at
least in the food market. At the time of writing
this article the price of teff was 560 Br
per quintal, while the price of pepper (damp pepper
that is) was around 600 Br per feresulla, (17 kg).
Are we going to experience an "alicha Genna",
a Christmas without chillies?
Genna
is traditionally marked by a hockey-like group game
that takes place between two teams comprised of as
many players as are available. After one team wins,
the members of the winning team sing teasing songs
with demeaning lyrics intended to ridicule and
embarrass the losing team in front of children and
elderly women who gather around the field waiting to
feast and enjoy the game. Any injury sustained
during the course of the game is supposed to be
tolerated on the behest of the Christmas holiday.
The victims are not supposed to complain about any
foul play.
Be genna chewatta, hyickotum gehetta:
this is a poem that states that even the head of the
village will not mind any foul play in the "Genna"
game. Emperor Haile Selassie and his family were
personally handing out Christmas gifts and presents
during the Christmas holiday to students. These
presents included cakes, fruits, sweaters, jackets
and shorts on Christmas day. The same afternoon the
military hockey teams used to compete for prizes at
the Jal Meda Palo Field.
Holiday lovers enjoy sharing meat of slaughtered
bovine for Christmas celebrations. The weather may
be chilly but the celebration wining and dining keep
us warm. If those are not enough, you may pay a
visit to one of those nightclubs downtown. I am sure
you would be surprised to discover that our capital
city is full of music beyond any reckoning. Hawkers
crowd as many cards as will fit on opened umbrellas,
some of which may find their way underneath
Christmas trees growing in popularity inside the
capital's residents.
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