Commemorating Holy Days

The Everyday Devotional Food Practices of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians

Abstract

Among Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, calendrical food practices form the basis of religious life. This paper investigates their "religious food practices" by exploring the complex relationships between fasting and feasting, and between feast days and their daily lives. Because fasting is an important part of Ethiopian Orthodox life, anthropology studies have focused on the cyclical contrasts of fasting (= abstinence) and feasting (= abundance, fertility). They have demonstrated that this liturgical cycle of consumption and bodily experience structures the fundamental rhythms of Christian life. However, by focusing on saints' days, some of which are outwardly identical to workdays, this paper reveals that there are other important aspects of day-to-day "religious food practices" for the laity. It also notes that people do not always view fasting and feasting as opposites or antithetical. By placing saints' days in the Ethiopian church calendar and examining differences between them and other annual feast days, I emphasize the importance of capturing people's "religious life" with an eye toward their mundane, everyday lives.