LALIBELA, ETHIOPIA: Rock Cut Churches and Christmas Celebration, Guest Post by Kathryn Mohrman

 52 Places to Go: Week 52

Pilgrims came to Lalibela from all over Ethiopia--by plane, bus, car, van, donkey, and on foot.

My friend, Kathryn Mohrman, an avid and excellent photographer, recently visited the highlands of Ethiopia on a photo tour with about a dozen other photographers.  She has graciously agreed to share some of her photos and impressions of the trip. Kathryn is a professor at Arizona State University and travels widely for her job as director of several projects with partner universities in China and Vietnam. You can see photos from her trip to Morocco last year at her 2/4/13 post on this blog.  I have known Kathryn since we were students together at Grinnell College in Iowa. This post was first published at The Intrepid Tourist 2/17/14.

This is the approach to the church of St. George (you are looking at the roof of the church).  Notice that the church is free standing--there is an open area all the way around the structure.

Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia celebrate Christmas in early January. In the 12th century, King Lalibela created a group of churches hewn out of rocky cliffs in the northern highlands to form a "new Jerusalem" for believers. Today many devout Ethiopian Christians make a pilgrimage to Lalibela to celebrate the birth of Christ. Lalibela is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The heart of Lalibela is a series of churches hewn out of rocky cliffs.

Lalibela is in the highlands of Ethiopia at about 8000 ft or 2400 m above sea level.  This was winter so it was fairly dry with no crops growing.We saw lots of livestock grazing in the fields--and walking down the roads.  In fact, I was almost run over by a bunch of galloping mules.

A few of the churches had frescoes painted on the ceilings; others had Bible scenes on canvas or wood as wall decorations. Passageways were carved through the rock to connect one church to the next.

Many thousands of pilgrims crowded the little town of Lalibela.  Often they had to wait quite a while to get access to the sacred sites. We saw informal preaching, singing and dancing in the courtyards surrounding some of the churches.  People were having a good time in addition to celebrating Jesus' birth. Turbans signify priests--they are expected to marry and have families.  Monks are celibate.

Priests would shake this instrument to accent the rhythm of their hymns.

We visited a monastery where we saw a number of precious objects.  This beautiful book was created in the 9th century when Europe was in the Dark Ages.
In the past there were hermits in little caves near the churches.  No hermits today, at least not in the main areas in Lalibela. 

People were expected to remove their shoes to go inside the churches.  Most pilgrims took off their shoes in the courtyards as well.

There is a Bible verse that says "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!"  Historic Jerusalem had a Needle's Eye gate and this is the Lalibela version.

As Christmas drew near, more and more people crowded into the courtyards.  On the night of Christmas Eve, many people camped out overnight in or near the churches to be ready for dawn on Christmas Day when a huge procession culminated the celebrations. (Read more about the celebration in this Smithsonian article.)

Several hours before dawn on Christmas Day, pilgrims were jockeying for position.  Many of them carried tall tapers although some used LED flashlights or their cell phones for light. Some priests, especially those who were collecting donations, wore beautiful robes and carried decorative umbrellas.

A large group of pilgrims came in several buses, complete with portable kitchen equipment.  After the final ceremony, the group gathered near my hotel for lunch before heading home.

 Noon on Christmas Day. 

This guy was one of my favorites.  I learned a proper greeting in Amharic which I said to him as he passed.  He walked a few steps, then turned around and blew kisses to me.  !!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Beautiful Christmas Plates from Germany

When my husband Art was in high school he was an exchange student, living for a year with a family in Berlin, Germany. It was the beginning of a life-long friendship. After Art and I were married, his German family sent us annual gifts of beautiful Christmas plates from the KPM porcelain factory in Berlin, each year with a different design. (Weihnachten is the German word for Christmas or Christmas Eve.) We get the plates out each year during the holidays and are reminded of all the wonderful times spent together both in Germany and here in the United States.
The holidays are a time to connect with family and friends near and far. As I celebrate with my friends and family this year in California, I send you my best wishes for

HAPPY HOLIDAYS
and a
JOYOUS NEW YEAR! 

 

 

BERLIN IN WINTER: Stollen and Christmas Markets

 52 Places to Go: Week 51

Friedrichstrasse at night outside our hotel

[Diary of my trip to Berlin in November 2010]  It was the last Thursday in November and we were in Berlin, where Art was attending a conference.  We were staying at the Maritim Hotel, on Friedrichstrasse, the main shopping street of the former East Berlin, now a bustling center of commerce with huge department stores, hotels, and other businesses.  That evening we attended an elaborate buffet at the hotel with dozens of dishes and artfully prepared appetizers, many in little glass containers.  Main courses included venison and roast goose–the closest we came to a real Thanksgiving dinner.  After dinner we walked a few blocks to the intersection with Unter den Linden, a wide boulevard leading to the Brandenburg Gate, which was decked out for Christmas with sparkling lights.  The temperature was around 0 degrees Centigrade and it felt like it was going to snow.  In the morning, as I looked out our hotel window, I saw a light dusting of snow on the rooftops.

View from our hotel window

The next day while Art was attending meetings, I ate at the hotel again.  Dessert came on a plate shaped like an artist’s palette with cake, ice cream, and chocolate sauce in three “paint” compartments.  Everywhere in the hotel, walls were decorated with modern paintings, some of them huge.  Finally, on the last day of our stay I realized that the concept of the hotel was a giant art gallery!  (Hence, the palette for my dessert!)  One thing that puzzled me when I got on the elevator to go to our room was that each floor had a name on it.  I now understood that these were the names of painters and each floor was dedicated to the work of a single artist.  Our floor (the 5th) displayed paintings by German artist Bernd Zimmer.

Carved Christmas Pyramid

On Saturday afternoon, after the meeting was over, we went out shopping, stopping at a Christmas store filled with pyramids (elaborately carved wooden holiday decorations that turn from the heat of lighted candles), as well as many other kinds of other wooden objects, plus holiday table cloths, ceramics, etc.

Entrance to the Christmas Market at Gendarmensmarkt

Our real destination, though, was the Christmas market at the Gendarmensmarkt, a few blocks away, where we paid one Euro each to get in.  This huge outdoor fair had dozens of booths selling food and crafts.  On one side was a stage where entertainers danced and sang.  There was also a semi-indoor section tented off from the chilly air where there were more booths.  We toured the booths and  bought cookies and poppyseed cake to take home, puppets for the grandkids, and a Thuringer sausage on a bun for my lunch.  We also took a photo by a large decorated Berlin bear. (Bears are the symbol of Berlin. They are all over the city--something like the cows in Chicago.)  That evening, German friends took us to the Berlin Opera where we saw Mozart's Magic Flute.  The staging–lots of smoke and lights–was dramatic and creative.  It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand the German lyrics. It was all wonderful.  Afterward, we ate in the opera restaurant where Art had smoked eel and I had gnocchi.

Booth selling stollen, cookies and other baked goods

On Sunday morning we bundled up and walked to the Brandenburg Gate and from there to the New National Art Museum, a large glass box not far from the symphony hall.  The main collection is German art of the early to mid-twentieth century.  From the outside, the building seems unlikely to have wall space for much art, but the inside is surprisingly spacious. In one room, they were screening a 1927 film called Symphony of Berlin, a black and white visual homage to life in the city as it was then, bustling with industry and commerce. (You can rent the film on Netflix.)  Later, we met our friends again for a traditional German Christmas tea with wonderful homemade stollen, fruit bread, cookies, and marzipan, followed by more German food for dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.  The next morning we got on a plane to go back to LA.

Caroline at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Note: We have been to Berlin numerous times, usually during warmer seasons.  This was my first trip in winter.  The short days and freezing temperatures, along with the sounds of Christmas music in the streets, brought back memories of winters in Minneapolis when I was growing up.  As a child, one of the highlights of the Christmas season was going downtown to look at the displays in the department store windows.  Even though I have lived in California for most of my adult life, and have gotten used to trees being green year round and t-shirt weather in January, Christmas still never seems quite the same without snow underfoot and the air so cold you can see your breath.  In Berlin, we could definitely see our breath in the night air!

This article was first published at The Intrepid Tourist 11/21/11.

All text and photos copyright Caroline Arnold at The Intrepid Tourist.

CHRISTMAS CRECHES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

 52 Places to Go: Week 50

Gourd Creche from Chile

Over the years my family has collected a variety of Christmas creches from all over the world.  Some of been souvenirs of our travel, others have been gifts, and some we have purchased at museum gift shops.  We get them out each holiday season and are reminded of all the different cultures that celebrate Christmas.  Here are a few of our favorites.

Knitted Creche from Chile

West African Nativity Figures

Haitian Nativity

Corn Husk Nativity from Mexico

Tin Nativity from Mexico

Ceramic Nativity from Mexico

Swedish cast iron Nativity candle holder

Russian Nesting Doll Nativity

FESTIVALS OF MEXICO, The Blessing of the Animals, Guest Post by Ann Stalcup

52 Places to Go: Week 49

Blessing of the Animals, Los Angeles, CA

My friend and fellow author Ann Stalcup has been fascinated by Mexican customs and culture for many years. She has taken numerous photographs in the Mexican communities of Los Angeles, California, where cultural events are celebrated frequently throughout the year. She has also visited areas of Mexico where she has observed many of the traditional festivals including The Blessing of the Animals, The Day of the Dead, and A Mexican Christmas. Here are a few of her photos and comments on the Blessing of the Animals.

THE BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS is celebrated each year on Saturday, the day before Easter. In Los Angeles, California, people gather with their pets at the historic center of the city on Olvera Street for this festival. Their pets can be as large as a horse or as small as a mouse, and each one is decorated with ribbons, hats, or flowers. Every type of pet is welcome. Many participants dress in colorful Mexican costumes. Everyone waits patiently in line as the robed priest sprinkles each pet with holy water and blesses it, thus ensuring a happy, healthy year ahead.

The Blessing of the Animals is a ceremony that has been a tradition for many years in some of the cities, towns, and villages of Mexico. Children bring their birds, crickets, frogs, lizards and other pets to be blessed.  There are rabbits and turtles, rats, guinea pigs, and monkeys.  There are parrots, canaries, and fish. Sometimes there is even a pet tarantula in the parade!

Mariachi Band

Before the parade begins a mariachi band of men dressed in elegant grey trousers and jackets perform their lively music.  Trumpets in harmony with violins get everyone in the mood for the fiesta.

At last the priest appears in his long robes.  He is usually one of the bishops of Los Angeles. People line up to have their animals blessed.  They celebrate on the plaza afterward.

Blessing of the Animals, Mural by Leo Politi

Near the plaza on Olvera Street is a beautiful mural of The Blessing of the Animals.  It was painted by Leo Politi, a Los Angeles artist.  He loved to paint children and wrote and illustrated many books for children about the special events that occurred in the city he loved.

Leo Politi at work on the mural

Ann Stalcup is the author of Leo Politi: Artist of the Angels (Silver Moon Press, 2004). For more information about Ann and her published work, visit her at her website: www.annstalcup.com

This post was first published at The Intrepid Tourist 9/8/14.

From PIZZA to PASTA and APPETIZERS to PASTRIES: Eating in Sicily

 52 Places to Go: Week 48

All the basic ingredients of a Sicilian meal can be found at the open-air market--tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, onions, and more--all fresh from the grower

One of the joys of traveling in Italy is the seemingly endless choice of delicious foods, and our recent trip to Sicily was no exception. From breakfasts of fresh bread and coffee and more, to lunches at street cafes or buying sandwich ingredients at a local shop, to dinners at trattorias and fancier restaurants, the hardest decision was limiting ourselves to just a few items on the menu. (Servings tend to be very generous and I often had trouble finishing my meal.)

Olives, artichokes and other appetizers at a market in Catania

We enjoyed browsing at the open-air markets in Palermo and Catania, where one could buy everything from olives and octopus to cherries (which were in season) and three-foot long zucchini squashes.

At this stand in the Ballaro market in Palermo one could buy whole cooked octopus (polpo) or plates of marinated chunks of octopus ready-to-eat.

Cookies and sweets made with almonds and almond paste are a typical dessert.

  These are just a few samples of typical Sicilian foods. In both Palermo and Catania, we relied on our BandB hosts to recommend restaurants, and were not disappointed. Note: While many Italians do not eat dinner until 8 or 9 o’clock, we were often hungry earlier and tended to be the first customers when restaurants opened for dinner at 7:30. Our trip in late May was before the busiest tourist season so we almost never had trouble getting a table, even without a reservation. Here's a list of some of the restaurants where we ate:

 Ferro di Cavallo restaurant in Palermo. (Ferro di Cavallo means "horseshoe".)

Palermo restaurants:
Quattro Mani: Quiet and upscale. A good choice to celebrate our first night in Palermo.
Ciccio Passami l'Olio: Pizza restaurant. Extremely popular on weekend nights and impossible to get a reservation for a table at the last minute. We ordered takeout and ate it as a picnic in a local park.
La Cambusa: A popular tourist restaurant with typical Sicilian food and an English menu.
Ferro di Cavallo: Classic Sicilian food. We had soup for lunch there, sitting on the patio.

Busiati pasta, a curlicue pasta made from hard durum wheat, is the typical pasta in Erice and Trapani.

Erice restaurants:
Monte San Giuliano: Typical Sicilian food, including interesting appetizers (a favorite of mine was the octopus). We ate there twice.
Venus: This restaurant is advertised all over town and was the site of the conference dinner at which we were served the typical courses of an Italian dinner: appetizers, Primi Piatti (pasta), Secundi Piatti (fish or meat), and dessert. All were excellent.

Pear and prosciutto salad and caponata appetizer at La Deliciosa in Catania

Catania restaurants:
La Deliciosa: a small trattoria that was conveniently close to our BandB on Via Crociferi. The food was delicious–just like the name–and we ate there three of our five nights in Catania.
Trattoria Casalinga: this small restaurant, about a five minute walk from our BandB, featured an appetizer bar with more than a dozen items, which could easily become a whole meal. We ate there twice–once ordering from the menu and one doing just appetizers.

This article was first published 7/22/19

All text and photographs copyright Caroline Arnold

From BLINIS to PELMENI, Sampling Traditional Russian Food in Washington, DC

 52 Places to Go: Week 47

Sometimes eating out can be a little bit like a trip to a foreign country. On our recent trip to Washington, DC, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Mari Vanna, a restaurant on Connecticut Avenue not far from Dupont Circle. Specializing in traditional foods from Russia and Eastern Europe, it was a chance to try foods we don’t normally eat. It was a Saturday night, and the bar on the main floor was humming. We were taken upstairs to the comfortable dining area, decorated with lace covered lamps, flowered menus, walls covered with historic photos, and a samovar in the corner. As we waited for our food, an accordion player serenaded the tables with lively polka tunes.

The menu of Mari Vanna features several kinds of black caviar–far beyond our price range. One can also order a variety of vodka based drinks. We opted for a Moldavian Merlot red wine.
Rather than ordering a large main course, we chose several smaller plates to share.
We began with a fish plate, an assortment of smoked salmon, smoked butter fish, smoked sturgeon chunk, which was served with fresh cucumber slices and lemon. We also ordered a plate of blinis (thin egg pancakes) served  with sour cream and salmon roe (which provided a salty crunch). A bread board came with two kinds of bread--a dark and light rye--served with traditional red radishes and a scallion

Our third item was a pot of Siberian pelmeni, a kind of Russian dumpling--in many ways similar to Chinese steamed dumplings. They came with various fillings both salty and sweet. We chose to have the pelmeni stuffed with ground pork.

By the time we finished the pelmeni, we were ready for dessert. Art had Medovik, a traditional Russian honey layered cake, and I chose what was called Bird’s Milk, described on the menu as a “Traditional Royal Milk Soufflé with Dark Chocolate” and tasted a bit like meringue topped with chocolate. Delicious!

By the end of our meal we were completely satisfied. I understand one can go to Mari Vanna for a traditional afternoon tea--another chance to sample their many desserts. On another visit to Washington, I’ll have to do that!
   
Mari Vanna
1141 Connecticut ave NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20036

This article was first published on 8/19/19

All text and photographs copyright Caroline Arnold