Our Journey to Baby Boz

I love that our kids are joining a family that celebrates CHRISTMAS and St. Nicholas Day. This year there will be two more little wooden shoes under the tree (my folks buy each grandchild a wooden shoe with their name engraved on it). This year little Atikilt and Zinabu will be added to the mix! So exciting! I love even more that we’ll be adding one more Christmas celebration to the mix!! After Christmas (on the 25th) we’ll be partying it up once again on January 7th in celebration of Genna, their Ethiopian Christmas. I'm already starting to get ideas for it....

Ethiopian Christmas is a major holiday in Ethiopia and falls on January 7, instead of December 25. Unlike the rest of the world Genna is devoid of Santa Claus and Christmas trees. But more recently the trend has been changing where Christmas trees have slowly started creeping into Ethiopian households where many people started using decorating trees even if there is still no Santa Claus stories told, giving and receiving gifts is also not a big deal among the people rather new clothes are bought for children as a present on the holiday.

Genna is followed by one month long fast. It is said that Legend has it that among the Magi the king bearing frankincense as gift to baby Jesus was King Balthazar of Ethiopia. The day before Genna, people fast all day. The next morning at dawn, everyone dresses in white. Most Ethiopians do a traditional shamma, a thin, white cotton wrap with brightly coloured stripes across the ends. After the mass in church families get together to take part in the holiday feast which include doro wot, tela (homemade traditional beer) and Defo Dabo (bread made for holidays). As done in many holidays’ people visit relatives and spend the holiday feasting together.

Christmas is a holiday where many people come together especially in recent times Ethiopian Diaspora come for the holiday in an attempt to not only enjoy Genna, but also celebrate Timket (Epiphany), considered one of the biggest holidays of the year which is just two weeks away from Genna.