✞ Today millions of Orthodox Christians commemorate Good Friday, also known as “Great Friday” to remember the events leading up to Jesus' Crucifixion.
In Ethiopia, Good Friday is known locally as Siklet which translates to Crucifixion of the L…
✞ Today millions of Orthodox Christians commemorate Good Friday, also known as “Great Friday” to remember the events leading up to Jesus' Crucifixion.
In Ethiopia, Good Friday is known locally as Siklet which translates to Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a day of fasting, intense prayer and prostrations.
Followers of Ethiopian Orthodox Churches share the religious tradition with other Orthodox Churches. In Ethiopia, churches outside the Ethiopian Orthodox Church including Catholic celebrate the good Friday along with the Ethiopian Church.
Good Friday is the holiday that Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was crucified for the salvation of human race. He was beaten hard, spited on and dragged with a robe all the way through to Calvary.
After His capture betrayed by Judas on Thursday eve subsequent to His prayer in Gethsemane, the Jews took Him and started their torture. Early morning on this Holy Friday, Lord Jesus Christ was brought to trial in front of the Jewish leader Pilate. Convicted for a crime He did not commit, Lord Jesus was tortured and tormented until He reached to the Calvary for crucifixion. Upon it was revealed miracles including the darkening of the sun, the bleeding of the moon and the falling of the stars whilst Lord Jesus Christ separated His divine soul from His body at the ninth hour. Then after, Joseph and Nicodimus took His holy body and buried it.
✞ A chapter in one of the Prayer books (The Passion of Cross or Himamat Meskel) of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church teaches us the following very important lesson:
“They did not know, but I was crucified and reigned over the righteous and the martyrs, so the Jews who saw those 7 miracles being done, were called Christians because they said that it could only be a God of nature who is showing us these miracles, and if He was not a God of nature, such miracles would not have been done.„
And,
☪ “Those who deny the divinity of Jesus by saying, „He is not God, He was not born, He is not The Son of God, God doesn't have a son, He was not crucified, He is only a friend of God, a good man and just a prophet; They are called Muslims, or followers of Islam. It was on that very day that Islam and Christianity were called as such.”
May God accept our prayer, fasting and all our endeavors on the great lent and redeem us; Amen!
