Africa
Why Ethiopian capital is unique
Tourists view the a replica of hominid "Lucy" at a Museum in Addis Ababa recently. Addis Ababa or “new flower’’ in Amharic is what one can rightly call, in some well known parlance, a “peculiar’’ city, and there are many factors that make this city very unique.
Posted Tuesday, February 3 2009 at 14:47
In Summary
As a city that was never planned by Europeans, since Ethiopia was never colonised, Addis Ababa has many features that make it very unique
The second most important holiday in Ethiopia after “Timkat” is Meskel which celebrates the finding of the “true cross’’ that Jesus was crucified on. Legend has it that an Ethiopian found it and brought it here but ask, where is the cross? No one seems to have an idea.
The third most important holiday in Ethiopia is Christmas which comes nine days after the Christian Christmas under the Orthodox calendar.
And, there is another unique event in Ethiopia. This involves large groups of worshippers outside any Orthodox church in Addis Ababa on any Sunday.
The reason here is that under church rules, anyone who has had sex in the last 48 hours or any woman who is on her periods should not enter church.
This rule extends to holy islands on Ethiopia’s Lake Tana where monks live and where no woman is allowed, the monks are not supposed to interact with any woman or even set eyes on any woman.
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