Tuesday 8 December 2009

It's Christmas time again, and I thought you might like to see some Christmassy pictures, but these ones are a bit different. They're from Ethiopia.

Ethiopia was the first country in the world to become Christian, and for centuries Ethiopians have been have been painting beautiful pictures to illustrate Bible stories. The ones here are several hundred years old. They were painted by monks on vellum (made out of sheepskin).


In this picture, Joseph is asleep and dreaming of an angel, who is telling him that Mary his wife will have a baby, Jesus. I love the way the angel is surrounded by all those puffy clouds against the golden sky.



In the Ethiopian Christmas story, the baby was not born in a stable, but in a cave.Here's the baby Jesus, with Mary his mother, Joseph and the midwife, Salome. Salome has brought a goat as a present.


The Holy Family had to escape to Egypt after Jesus was born. The Ethiopians believe that they came to Ethiopia, so they've put African animals in this picture - an elephant, a monkey and a wild pig.

That's all for now, folks. Have a great Christmas! I'll try to do more blogs in the New Year, but I don't find it very easy getting the pictures straight. Oh well - practice makes perfect.