Christmas (Genna) celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. This is a colorful festival celebrated by all Christian people in the country. The dancing of the priest with their great drums and sistras by standing around the edge of the cliff surrounding the churches is so impressive. Especially at Lalibela.

Timket (Epiphany) is the final great religious festival in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church calendar. It commemorates when Saint John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. The festival starts in the early hours of the eve of Timket. Two weeks after the Ethiopian Christmas. The church Tabots (the replicas of the Ark of the covenant containing the Tabots of Law, on to which the Biblical ten commandments were inscribed) to the near by water body. In the culmination of the ceremony, priests bless the water and a communal baptism follows, splashing water on everyone and, if the body of water is large enough, the most fervent followers will immerse themselves.

 Following the baptism the Tabots are paraded back to their churches accompanied by church members and believers, chant, dancing, drum-beating, prayer stick waving. Axum, Lalibela, Gondar, and Addis Ababa are the best place to experience this cultural celebration.

Maskel is celebrated by dancing, feasting and lighting a massive bonfire known in Ethiopian tradition as “Demera”. Maskel festival marking the finding of the true cross as which Jesus Christ was crucified. In Ethiopia the monastery of Gishen Mariam holds the true cross of Christ.