I don’t think any other artwork from our “Living with Art” magazine could be more aptly fit with the current time of the year than the painting on parchment of the nativity by an anonymous Amhara artist from Ethiopia. Thanks to our artist friend Mulugeta Tafesse we found out the meaning of the inscription in ge’ez on the upper left section of the painting; it reads “Seebeaa Segel” or “The Three wise men” (yes, I count five too). On the right side is written close to the raised staff in ge’ez, “Birthday” - referring to Christ’s Birthday, or Christmas! Centrally we indeed find a cute baby Jesus in his basket.
I acquired this painting a few years ago, it came rolled and only after having been flattened for half a year it could be professionally mounted and put behind museum glass. I fell in love with it not because of the nativity scene but due the dynamic treatment of the composition in the typical local painting style. For a long time I thought it was a representation of some religious procession, yet only recently I discovered the subject is much more secular. This painting on parchment is in fact a wonderful depiction of Gena, a traditional game popular in the Ethiopian highlands. Two black dots (centrally and on the lower end of the painting) had always intrigued me, and thus turned out to be wooden balls!
Gena is similar to field hockey and is played in a space between villages without defined boundaries. Two teams throw a ball in the air and hit it with sticks, the goal being to prevent the opposing team to bring the ball to their village. The game is closely associated with Gena, the celebration of Christmas, from which it gets its name. Because Ethiopia follows the Julian calendar, Gena falls on 7 January. According to an Ethiopian legend, Gena was first played by shepherds to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Indeed, everyone has his/her own way of celebrating the end of the year - I’m sure you have yours too - I hope its in good company and the best of spirits ! Happy holidays!
