When Band Aid recorded a single to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, the supergroup famously sang: "Do they know it's Christmas time at all?"
But regardless of the much-critiqued lyrics, Ethiopia was one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity – before the UK. In 2019, a team of archaeologists in Ethiopia uncovered the oldest known Christian church in sub-Saharan Africa, near the modern-day border with Eritrea. They concluded it had been built in the fourth-century AD – around the time when Roman Emperor Constantine I legalised Christianity.
The discovery confirms that Christianity "arrived at an early date in an area nearly 3,000 miles from Rome", said the Smithsonian.
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Ethiopians follow the ancient Julian calendar, and like many other Orthodox Christians they celebrate Christmas on 7 January (or according to the Ge'ez Ethiopian calendar, the 29th day of Tahsas).
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church's celebration is known as Ganna, or Genna, and "celebrations last for weeks", said RoughGuides.
"Christianity is not new for Tigrayans, we are the first, no one is before us," one Ethiopian man who lives in Manchester told The Guardian. "But the way we celebrate Christmas is Orthodox," another added. "We don't celebrate Santa Claus and elves!"
A new outfit
Ganna is first and foremost a religious holiday; unlike in the West, Ethiopians do not typically exchange gifts. "Religious observances, feasting, and games are the focus of the season," said HowStuffWorks.
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But one gift that children "eagerly await" is a new outfit to wear on Christmas Day, said World Vision. These are often shemmas – "a traditional dress made from thin white cotton with colourful embroidery and thread at the edges".
Ironically, when the Band Aid song was recorded during the 1983-85 famine, the nation was under a communist government that banned any religious festivals. So although Ethiopians very much knew it was Christmas when the song made waves around the world, they were not allowed to observe it.
Harriet Marsden is a senior staff writer and podcast panellist for The Week, covering world news and writing the weekly Global Digest newsletter. Before joining the site in 2023, she was a freelance journalist for seven years, working for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent among others, and regularly appearing on radio shows. In 2021, she was awarded the “journalist-at-large” fellowship by the Local Trust charity, and spent a year travelling independently to some of England’s most deprived areas to write about community activism. She has a master’s in international journalism from City University, and has also worked in Bolivia, Colombia and Spain.
