Humming a hymn is Esubalew Yitayew. It would be difficult to discuss Ethiopia without mentioning the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church. One cannot separate the two from each other. Since the country’s founding in the fourth century, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has been a key defining force for its citizens. Even now, it’s normal to see children as young as 7 enter a churchyard gravely, bow, kiss the ground, and pay respects before humbly leaving. Thanks to Ethiopia’s Tewahedo Orthodox Church, religion is arguably treated more seriously than anywhere else in the world in the modern era. An Orthodox idea known as tewahedo, which translates to “being made one,” shows Jesus as having a one, undivided nature that embodies both his divine and human parts. In the first millennium B.C., people fled Sabaea and settled in Ethiopia across the Red Sea. They were polytheists who revered and respected a large number of gods of the sky, the sea, and the land. With the spread of Greek civilisation into Ethiopia, the Sabaean pantheon would be replaced by the Greek pantheon. An unknown Ethiopian Emperor left famous Greek inscriptions at Adulis about Zeus, Poseidon, Aries, Hermes, and Hercules. By the third century, Ethiopia will begin to develop its own Ethiopianized culture and identity. The names of the gods would then sound more Ethiopic as a result. Poseidon would turn into Baher, then Almouqah into Seamy, and finally Aries into Mahrem.
