Pandemic Vs. Tradition

[Disir]

Easter is one of the major religious holidays in Ethiopia; and with it, comes a unique tradition of preparing holiday feast for the Easter vigil. Ethiopians are among the few people around the world who prefer to slaughter their own animals, at home, in preparation of a holiday meal. Apparently, the live animal markets around the holidays is part of this celebration; usually, it is the head of the family that goes out shopping for live animals and it involves a lot of contact with the animals and the sellers, completely contrary to the recent COVID-19 realities and social distancing rules. Pictured above are holiday shoppers making deals to buy live chicken from a seller at the nearly deserted Shola Market, on Thursday. The obvious slowdown of holiday markets notwithstanding, and left unchecked, live animals markets in Ethiopia could may well be potential hotspots for the spread of the virus in Ethiopia.

A few days before Easter, Shola Open market is usually full of shoppers looking for last minutes bargains. This week, it was different. The area looked empty, abandoned at best. There were few customers; most of the sellers were looking at breaking even and a profit looked a farfetched dream. Many looked defeated by their new reality.

Pandemic Vs. Tradition | The Reporter Ethiopia English

Easter is one of the major religious holidays in Ethiopia; and with it, comes a unique tradition of preparing holiday feast for the Easter vigil. Ethiopians are among the few people around the world who prefer to slaughter their own animals, at home, in preparation of a holiday meal.

www.thereporterethiopia.com

This Sunday is Orthodox Easter so it is a bit interesting watching people go through the exact same thing as they did leading up to last Sunday.