Ashenda

There have been 15 days of fasting by the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, called filseta, leading up to a feast day today.  Today is called Ashenda, which is primarily celebrated in the Northern Tigray region of Ethiopia, but the influence was definitely seen here in the city today, as well.  Ashenda literally means “tall grass” in Tigrinya – the language spoken in the Northern region.  Ashenda is mainly celebrated by girls and young women who wear traditional dresses, make-up, and a grass skirt made of these “tall grasses”, and sing, drum and dance.

In addition to the large gatherings and decorations at the church we noticed on the way into work this morning, very noticeably the meat stalls were back open everywhere and there were many animals, both still alive, and bloody skins of goats and sheep out along the road this morning.

This "sheep wheelbarrow" is a relatively common sight for moving individual sheep around here.  Sometimes holding the back legs and walking forward, and sometimes holding on to the front legs with the sheep behind them.

We also indulged with a co-worker and went out for tibs (roasted meat) for lunch today.  Also, very popular here today was kitfo – raw beef eaten with injera – although I'm going to pass on that. 

Roasted beef tibs with spicy dipping sauce.

Eaten by picking off a piece of injera and then eating a piece of meat at a time.  

A view from our table of the side window to the restaurant's meat house.

Front window - Definitely a popular place to be today!

Although the holiday is mainly celebrated in the Northern region, we did see multiple groups of young girls of Northern heritage out celebrating today – including right outside of our office building where we had our own private show.

Girls in traditional dress

Singing...

...and dancing...

My co-worker and office-mate, Fikerte, who is from the Northern region, decided to borrow one of their drum's and get in on the festivities.  Other co-workers and I are looking on in the background there.