Angelina Jolie Watch

Angelina has recently been quoted (many many times) as saying: “Zahara’s Christmas is January 8. With Maddox, it is the water festivals in Buddhism. We’re getting into all that with them.�? I put my amateur sleuthing to work in order to find out more about Z’s Christmas I’ll cover Mad’s water festival on a later date)… and here’s what I’ve found:

The Ethiopian Christmas is celebrated on January 7th (not 8th as AJ suggested unless the Christmas in question is a holiday other than the Ethiopian Christmas).

“Christmas is a major holiday in Ethiopia where more than half of the
population is Orthodox Christian. The celebrations occur January
7, the Feast of the Epiphany, instead of December 25.”

You must have a manger scene that includes the Three Kings (Magi) (legend has it that the king bearing frankincense was King Balthazar of Ethiopia), you will also need frankincense oil to burn throughout the holiday (it is acceptable to mix the frankincense with other things to create a different scent).

Attendance at a Christian Orthodox is the norm for an Ethiopian service, but men and woman will probably have to sit separate. Church services can last up-wards of 3 hours. It is not uncommon to attend more than one service at more than one church.

The Christmas meal usually includes a spicy chicken stew (Doro Wat), flat round bread (Injera) and wine or beer. The bread is used to scoop and eat the food and utensils are not used.

The Christmas meal is followed by the purchase and slaughter of an animal (typically a goat or cow).

During the Christmas celebration, children customarily play a form of field hockey, called ganna. The game is played by two teams and the stick (with hooks on one end) and ball are made from locally grown trees.

Gift giving and Christmas trees are not usually a part of the Ethiopian Christmas.

People magazine has just announced that Brangelina is the 2006 “Family of the Year”.

In the article, Angelina discusses their nomadic lifestyle and the fact that it’s not likely to change anytime soon. She goes on to talk about the various charities she and Brad support among various countries… the homelands of the children to name a few, Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Angelina states “Somebody said to us recently that they were happy kids, and we talked about how much that meant to us to hear. And they’re good kids. God knows how we managed to do that – but they’re good kids.”.

I’m hoping that they’re right that the kids are well behaved. I think that I’m not alone in hoping we don’t have a whole new generation of Paris Hiltons on their way into the night clubs.