Late Saturday into the wee hours of Sunday, a meditative veil fell over worshipers at Debre Meheret Kedus Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral.
Worshipers of all ages in gauzy layers, representing the light of Jesus, began filing into the hall at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, stashing shoes in plastic bags and settling in for eight hours of chanting and declarations in the liturgical language of Ge’ez. White-socked feet shuffled on burgundy carpet.
“Truly, truly his light is amazing,” chanted the choir, an interpreter said.
Early in the night, children swayed to the beat of drums played with swingy precision, but as the hours ticked by they began to fall asleep, many passing out at their parents’ feet, cozy under white cloth.
Shortly before midnight, a church leader held aloft a portrait of Jesus cradled by Mary as fire from a central flame was passed from person to person until hundreds held lit candles.
The overhead lights dimmed and Abune Fanuel, archbishop of Washington D.C. for the Ethiopian Orthodox, dressed in ornate robes and flanked by similarly decorated church leaders processed through the hall as chanting and drumming reached a crescendo.
A Mass began promptly with the reading of Gospels and Communion. By 2:45 a.m., it was time for the feast to end a 45-day fast from animal products.
By midmorning Sunday, Aki Amsalu was feeling festive and about to dig into a second round of chicken stew, lamb stew, cabbage with meat and other dishes prepared by his wife, Haimanot Ariti, and eaten in the traditional way from one communal tray.
“We have not slept yet. We just ate breakfast again. We’re going at it again,” he said by phone from home, recounting a meal for a dozen family and friends. Amsalu, 53, lives in Riverdale Park, works for DHL in logistics and runs audiovisual operations at the church.
Amsalu was born in Ethiopia and came to the United States for school in the late ‘80s with a plan to return to his home country after college, but like so many of the tens of thousands of Ethiopians in the Greater Washington region, he built a life here instead.
About 30 parishioners established the church in 1993 in a small room in the Woodner Building on 16th Street NW. The congregation outgrew multiple spaces and in the mid-90s built the cathedral at 3010 Earl Place NE, where jewel-toned paintings cover the walls.
Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas bears few of the hallmarks of Christmas many celebrated with Santa and presents 13 days earlier, which observes the birth of Jesus Christ based on the Gregorian calendar, developed by 16th-century Pope Gregory XIII to more closely align with the solar year.
Governments and Protestant churches followed suit, as did most churches in the Greek Orthodox tradition after 1923. The differences didn’t matter to Woyintu Duressa, 50, of Maryland, who cut to the heart of the holiday for all faiths.
“We are very happy because we get to be together as a family,” she said through an interpreter, “and celebrate the birth of Christ.”
