Also known as: Siklet · Orthodox Good Friday
Siklet (ስቅለት, "crucifixion") is Ethiopian Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Christ. Its date moves with Fasika, Ethiopian Easter, and it falls at the climax of the most intense week of the Orthodox year — the culmination of a fast that has already run fifty-three days. Where Timket and Meskel are festivals of color and crowds, Siklet is their opposite: a day of silence, fasting and physical devotion, and a national public holiday.
Semune Himamat: the week of suffering
Siklet is the peak of Semune Himamat, "the week of suffering" — Ethiopian Holy Week. Through the week the church reads the Passion narratives, ornaments are stripped back, and the mood darkens day by day toward Friday. Observant families suspend celebrations of every kind; even greetings traditionally become subdued.
On Good Friday itself the devout spend most of the day in church, where services run from morning into the late afternoon. The characteristic devotion of the day is sigdet — repeated full prostrations, rising and bowing to the ground again and again, a physically demanding penance kept by young and old. Many fast absolutely, taking neither food nor water until the day's services end.
From the darkest day to the brightest feast
Siklet's severity is inseparable from what follows: the fast continues through Saturday, and then Fasika — Easter — breaks it in the early hours of Sunday with the greatest feast of the year. The two days form a single arc, the deepest austerity of the Ethiopian calendar answered by its greatest joy, and both are national public holidays in Ethiopia's civil calendar (Good Friday as the public holiday, Easter Sunday falling on a Sunday).
Because the date is computed by the church's traditional Alexandrian reckoning, Siklet usually falls in April and often later than Good Friday in Western churches — some years by more than a month, in others coinciding exactly.
Frequently asked questions
- When is Ethiopian Good Friday in 2027?
- Friday, April 30, 2027 — Miyazia 22, 2019 in the Ethiopian calendar.
- Why does the date of Ethiopian Good Friday change every year?
- It is anchored to Fasika (Ethiopian Easter), whose date is computed by the church's traditional Alexandrian reckoning — so Good Friday moves with it, usually landing in April, often later than the Western date.
- How do observant Ethiopians keep Siklet?
- With day-long church services, repeated full prostrations known as sigdet, and strict fasting — many take no food or water until the day's services end in the late afternoon.
- What is Semune Himamat?
- "The week of suffering" — Ethiopian Holy Week, the final and most austere week of the 55-day Great Lent, culminating in Siklet and then Fasika.