After an eight-week fast from meat and dairy products, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter one to two weeks after Easter in the western church. Ethiopian Christians gather for a lengthy church service on Easter Eve that ends at three in the morning. They celebrate the risen Christ once their fast is broken. Ethiopia is recognised as one of the most religious countries in the world, with the vast majority of its residents belonging to the Orthodox church, one of the branches of Christianity, as you may recall from your history studies or from general knowledge.
You should be aware that the Orthodox Church, which is among the oldest in the world, has a highly particular and historic set of traditions. Because so many people dress in white robes and travel to the nearest church to attend mass, every Orthodox holiday in Ethiopia is distinguished by a perceptible change in the air. To go back to our main point, every year, a week or so before Easter Sunday, members of the Orthodox church celebrate the well-known Palm Sunday.
Orthodox believers gather on this day to participate in a special Palm Sunday mass at the neighboring church. This makes it abundantly evident that Easter Sunday is now just seven days away. On Palm Sunday, however, we are reminded of the liturgical significance of this event, which of course commemorates the entry of Jesus Christ on a donkey into Jerusalem and the crowds that greeted him with palm branches in their hands and cries of “hosanna” as they did so.
