A very special day

The symbols of fourteen religions are shown in the picture above. Clockwise from the top, they are: Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, Wicca, Zoroastrianism, and Druidism. About 30% of the world’s population consider themselves Christian – the largest percentage. Can you find yourself in this graphic?

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I was baptized as a baby and raised Catholic. Although no longer a practicing Catholic, I very much consider myself a Christian. I pray every night and fully believe there is something much bigger than me out there watching over me.

For years I held off on baptizing Luke. I fully supported the concept but wanted to baptize him as a Christian rather than a specific 'type' of Christian. I made the decision shortly before I left home to baptize my children together, Ethiopian style here in Addis. After much research, and several visits, I finally decided upon the Holy Trinity Cathedral – a Christian Orthodox church. This cathedral is believed to be the second most important place of worship in all of Ethiopia – second only to the Old Church of St. Mary of Zion (which is all the way up north in Axum). Holy Trinity Cathedral is also the final resting place of Emperor Haile Selassie.....which makes sense, as he had it built back in 1931.

Three different alarms made three different sounds at 5:00 am this morning. Sunday mornings are always lively in Addis. The streets are littered with joggers and music is blasting from every church you pass. Today, exactly four weeks before Christmas, was going to be a BIG day for my boys.

Holy Trinity Cathedral from the outside....



The front door....



The inside of the church was breathtaking. Gorgeous biblical scenes painted everywhere, including the ceiling....







As I mentioned, Haile Selassie (born "Tafari"....with "Ras" later added to the front for "head") commissioned the Cathedral to be built in 1931, just one year into his 44 year reign as Emperor of Ethiopia. Here is a picture of his chair near the front of the church. Since his death in 1975 nobody has sat in it. Incidently there is an identical one for his wife right beside it. I am guessing nobody has sat in it either :)



The remains of both he and his wife are located at the front of the church in these massive granite tombs.



Ok, so back to the main event......we then moved downstairs to a very small, but special, room just for baptisms. I was previously told we would be the only ones here today and it would be a very short ceremony......seriously incorrect information on both accounts! Turns out Luke and Levi were two of a dozen children baptized that day. Here are my boys very early in the morning wearing traditional Ethiopian clothes, along with silver Ethiopian crosses. This is the happiest they looked all morning (yes folks, a little foreshadowing)!



I was extremely fortunate to have a very special man with me. Years ago, when I adopted Luke, Solomon was the director of operations for the adoption agency. He is a wonderful man who truly loves both of my children. Thankfully he had agreed to come today to help translate. His wife is a lovely woman with a great sense of humour. I could not have made it through the morning without them!



We sat in the front row waiting for the event to get under way. Solomon was at my side doing his best to explain everything that was about to happen. His wife remained near the back holding all our shoes which had to be removed upon entering the building.




Several priests entered the room singing (well, more like chanting). One carried a candle and they all began to circle the large marble basin. This went on for some time. The boys became a bit restless so I pulled out a hot-wheel. Moments later, after the car slipped from Luke's hand to the floor, I was SO relieved to see one of the priests smile as he picked up the small toy and returned it to my son.



Quite suddenly, I was summonded to the back to chat with a man who seemed to be recording important information. I was asked for the names I had given my children for this special occasion. Solomon explained that this was not to be their Ethiopian name, nor their given name (by me), but rather a name I had chosen for today...and it had to be a Christian name. My heart skipped a beat and I suddenly felt sweat dripping down my back. With impressive speed, I reported "John" for Luke and "Paul" for Levi. The recorder looked at me a little strange, but seemed to crack a tiny smile. I immediately imagined him thinking to himself, "Hey lady, there's a Catholic church right down the street!" He remained silent though, and quickly translated those names into Amharic before he wrote them down in his little book. Through Solomon, he then asked for the "Father's name".....I was sure the drops of sweat doubled in size. Solomon, knowing damn well that my husband has yet to be found, whispers to me "Just give him YOUR father's name".... I do, and he quickly tranlsates that into "Elias". At that exact moment I remember that Elias was the name of the taxi driver who brought us to the church this morning. Wow. Suddenly I am feeling so ZEN - like I have magically lept through all the unexpected hoops placed before me during this brief but important conversation.



This was a baptism unlike any I had known. I guess I should have expected this. After all, this was Africa. It was very busy. Much commotion. Multiple things happening simultaneously (which made it difficult for my photographer). To the best of my recollection, it went something like this:

Priests carefully approached each child, more than once, to bless them. This took on various forms - from touching their foreheads with a large silver cross......to special oils being rubbed on parts of their faces.......to bells being rung that smelled like frankinscence as they rang. In this photo I am at the very end with Luke and Levi. The priest is in gold and is carrying the smelly bells :) You can see Solomon doing the translating.



Next, all clothes had to be removed from the children. The priests took them to either the marble basin or the shower (both my kids went to the shower as they were not babies). Levi was first. The scream as they quickly peeled his little naked body from mine was loud....but NOTHING compared to the yelp he let out when he hit the freezing cold shower. Thankfully it was quick and he was back in my arms within seconds. Luke went next and did not make a sound. He didn't have to, as the look on his face when they brought him back told the whole story. I began to put their clothes back on when one of the priests shook his finger at me. Ooops, apparently a little premature on my part. Here are my slippery little naked kids in among the chaos that was the baptism room.



The next part was more than a little surprising. One at at time, each little naked body was lifted up into the air and then spun (yes, SPUN) around a couple of times. A special oil was then quickly dabbed onto their shoulders and back. Sadly, my photographer's baby needed feeding, so we have no still shots of that. Not to worry though, because my VIDEO guy got this part. The boys and I have already played it back and had a good giggle.

Finally the actual ceremony was over and the clothes could go back on.





We were about 90 minutes in by now. It was time for the speeches. For the next 30 minutes we all sat quietly as each priest, then finally the monk, spoke about the meaning of the morning's events. This is when Solomon worked over time. His lean into me was constant, smoothly taking each idea from Amharic to English for me. I was quite touched when the priest made reference to our particular situation. He looked at the three of us for quite some time. Apparently he was telling us, and the rest of the group, how impressed he was that these two Ethiopian born boys had been brought here today for this holy sacrament. He believed that this would help them to never forget where they came from, and that God would never foresake them.

Finally, we all moved upstairs and entered the regular Sunday morning church proceedings, long underway. The place was jammed packed, so we sat on the floor. It was incredibly hot and I was exhausted. The boys were doing no better and fading fast. Did I mention they had not been permitted to eat ANYTHING since the night before? Thankfully, we were almost done. All baptized children were to be brought to the alter to be blessed one final time. In addition, they were to drink a small spoonful of something yellow (no clue what this was all about - it was most definitely NOT in the procedure manual!) Luke was a champ and took it..... but the look on his face told me he was not at all impressed. Levi would NOT take it and put up his usual fight. One of the priests grabbed him from me and brought him to another priest (in fancier clothes) had him blessed one more time. I can only guess that he figured this extra blessing was necessary as he did not drink the liquid.

We politely pushed through the crowd and were out. Finally, fresh air! We said our thank yous to Solomon and his wife, put our shoes on and jumped back in the taxi. The boys searched through my backpack for anything edible, which managed to hold them off till we got home for a very late breakfast. It was a four hour affair and we were pooped!

A morning like this can't help but make you think. Are the multitude of beliefs and practices, in the name of religion, really necessary? Maybe. Maybe not. Religion is indeed confusing. What about something a little more simple (see quote below). What do YOU think?

"Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble." - Ralph Waldo Emerson