Celebrate a Country Day- Eritrea

 This year is still a lot like last year with the mess of Covid-19 still raging about. That and Buck's job loss made our favorite family holiday a little harder to celebrate. But God is good and we ended up finding a way to still party. 

I had wanted to do the country of Eritrea originally so that Winta and Haben could teach us all about it. It worked out that they wanted to have a celebration for their Christmas, which for them falls on January 7th (same with Armenia and some other countries!) So I decided to piggy back off that celebration and double up. 

Eritrea is next to Ethiopia in east Africa. They actually used to be two countries but there was a long, long war that ended in the 1990's with them splitting into two. But due to their shared history they still share the same culture- same food, dress, music, etc. The differences come from the languages, however, and the government. Eritrea is actually considered one of the most oppressive places to live in the world and is often referred to as the "North Korea of Africa." But if you ever want to try some Eritrean food, which I highly recommend, you can find an Ethiopian restaurant and know you're in good company; and there seems to be a growing popularity for Ethiopian restaurants in America, so check one out sometime! 

For our party we had lots of food, of course, and then Haben did the traditional coffee ceremony. It's a whole process of roasting the coffee beans, grinding them up, then boiling them in a cool pot with water. Then everyone drinks some of the thick, gritty coffee. They do this four times. And while Buck and I don't drink coffee, (and obviously neither do the kids) we enjoyed watching the process. 

We also had traditional music and dancing and Winta wore her traditional celebration dress and jewelry. It was the perfect evening.