Christmas Gena Lent (Fast of the Prophets): The Birth of Christ
Ever since I was a child, starting at 7 years old, I enjoyed fasting, lenting, and eating vegan, despite coming from a religious carnivorous family. I felt light and healthy, my body and mind brimming with energy. Lent felt like a superpower, granting me self-control over my mind and body. As I grew older, I loved eating mostly vegetables and fruits, to the point where my family would make fun of me, calling it “food for the poor.” When asked to label my eating habits, I am reluctant because my palate changes over time, and food is not something I am attached to. Throughout high school, university, my career, global travels, intimate partnerships, creating my business, and serving God’s universe, I used lent, fasting, prayer, body discipline, meditation, and learning emotional and social intelligence to focus, envision, and live a healthy and wealthy lifestyle.
This Christmas is no different from other Christmas seasons; it is one of my favorite seasons after Easter. I started building my Christmas tree in November, preparing my mind and body to detox, retreat, seclude, and go deep into a spiritual practice for 43 days of Lent, prayer, fasting, inner work, and meditation, leading me and Mother Earth into an abundant year.
I chose to grow up and become an adult in the Pacific Northwest when I was ready for an adventure. Living in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) was a joy with its epic outdoors, nature, healthy food selection, great educational system, vegan restaurant options, robust social health system, and conscious citizens. The high living standards, the awareness of its inhabitants, and the beauty of how the Native Indians and early settlers preserved nature influenced me, leading to a healthy spiritual lifestyle. It made me realize that humanity has evolved toward ethical, conscious, and mindful living in communities and societies like the PNW.
This awakening challenged my beliefs, behaviors, habits, cycles, and rituals that were coded, programmed, and engineered within me, that made me successful in life and aligned. Coming from an ancient religious, spiritual, and conservative family, raised by awakened fathers, building my brand in my feminine divinity, being highly educated, and becoming the change I wanted, tested my comfort zone at every phase. I use lent, fasting, meditation, and silence to go within to face my darkest fears, tests, challenges, and blindspots for spiritual awakening and to serve.
Many Ethiopians Lent & fast in the lead-up to Christmas Day to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. The fast begins on November 25th, known in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as Tsome Nebiyat (Fast of the Prophets), a 43-day journey of abstinence leading to Gena, Ethiopian Christmas, on January 7th. This tradition is deeply rooted in ancient Christian practice. Even in the early Jewish and early Christian communities, lent & fasting was used to prepare for sacred events, cultivate purity, and sharpen spiritual discernment.
Lent & fasting, a form of self-denial, typically refers to abstention from food. During Lent.or Tsome the purpose is to show restraint and self-control, disciplining and training the mind and body to focus and live by God’s spiritual laws. It grounds and sharpens high-vibration energy, shielding oneself from the collective ego-driven false world.
Navigating life through experimentation, exploration, and spiritual guidance helped me heal and grow. I live conservatively, disciplined, and focused in mind, body, and spirit to gauge my emotions and maintain high energy frequency to be guided by spirit not man. Raised by hardworking awakened fathers, and fear-led mothers, my religious practices, self-love, focus, discipline, and purification of mind, body, emotion, and spirit led me to spiritual awakening. I took full responsibility and accountability for myself to be part of healing God’s universe by 14yrs young, encouraged by my Entrepreneur fathers that loved me unconditionally, while my soverign was resented but inspired my mother, friends, family & community in envy & fear teaching me the art of emotionally divorcing & being private with discernment with those that did not align with my vision in grace not argument.
I learned early on that I have the power to dream, envision, and manifest whatever I want despite fears, environment, parents’ views, toxic friends, and life’s challenges. Discovering spirituality through church services, fasting, reading books, observing, asking questions, seeking teachers, and being open to the global world intrigued and challenged me, becoming my path within. Each stage of my life has been about serving God, aligning my being with my spirit and the universe. Living in the real world while practising what I preached—to be in service—triggered, evoked, projected, reflected, provoked, and made me uncomfortable, prompting my realignment, awakening, healing, growth, upgrades, and evolution from within.
It is generally agreed, and asserted by the Church, that the Ethiopian Church has the strictest fasting regime of any Christian tradition, with 180 mandatory fasting days for laypeople and up to 252 days for clergy and the particularly observant. This is codified in the Fetha Negest, the ancient canonical law text preserved for centuries. Various Lents exist:
- Tsome Nebiyat (Prophets’ Fast, 43 days before Gena)
- Tsome Hudade / Abiy Tsom (Great Lent, 55 days before Easter/Fasika)
- Tsome Filseta (Dormition of St. Mary, 15 days)
- Tsome Hawariat (Fast of the Apostles, variable length(14-44))
- Tsome Nineveh (Fast of Jonah, 3 days)
Among others. Ethiopia’s calendar, spirituality, culinary traditions, and rhythms of daily life have been shaped by these cycles for over 1,700 years, since the official adoption of Christianity in the 4th century under King Ezana of Aksum.
During Ethiopian Lent, observers partake in only one meal a day, eaten in the afternoon or evening, as food should not distract one's physical purification. Fasting involves abstention from animal products (meat, dairy, and eggs), and sometimes fish, and refraining from eating or drinking before 3:00 PM. An absolute or dry fast involves abstaining from all food, liquor, and sex, as well as anything that gives pleasure to the body and mind, for a defined period.
For those who want to go deeper, a silent reclusive period in any of the monasteries throughout Ethiopia Debre Libanos, Lalibela, Zege Peninsula, Gishen, Waldebba, and many others can provide retreat, rest, insights, and visions for challenging situations in life, sometimes even a metaphorical death and rebirth. Or as my fathers taught me, & I have continued in my life, I make my home into a monestry, having a place or a room of prayer, abstaining from most wordly desires, & live my life as spiritual as I can throughout the year.
Lenting, fasting, abstinence, and introspection are intended to allow each person to focus more closely on their relationship with God and spiritual living, free from worldly distractions. This does not mean abstaining from all food or social activities during Lent. Instead, many churches extend fasting restrictions beyond food to a lifestyle of healing and detox from within: stillness, reflection, and preserving one’s energy. One might abstain from vices like smoking, drinking, partying, or porn, refrain from extreme hobbies, or avoid excessive entertainment or social media. The goal is to steer attention away from temporary satisfactions and concentrate within, practising mindful living, connecting with one’s soul, embracing stillness, listening in silence, being with nature, and connecting with God’s universe to purify, cleanse, rejuvenate, and heal. In constant reflection, love, forgivness, & learning lessons from failiur, curves, tests & challenges as God does not make mistakes, but going deeper to repent, pray, meditate & seek guidance from God, not in blame, victim, guilt, easily triggered, or shame of oneself or others.
The profound respect for humanity’s process rituals of birth and death to honour the soul, the procession of fithat for the spirit’s departure to rejoin the source, as well as the culture & lifestyle on how to live a purpose driven life, has been deeply embedded in Ethiopian Orthodox followers. This serves as a reminder that the cradle of mankind the birthplace of Homo sapiens, the home of ancient genetics, and what the world calls Ethiopia has preserved the art, science, technology, mysticism and culture of living, serving, seeking, discovering, creating, and breathing knowing you are made in God’s image. Enough. Whole. And that Utopia is within. I travelled the world Solo nlt to escape, but for my spiritual awakening, & evolution, to remember who I AM.
No one, nothing, and nobody should have power over one’s mind, body, spirit, emotion, and energy. You surrender only to God to lead your life, heal, and grow. Fasting, lenting, meditation, prayer, and healthy living with boundaries enable intuition, strong gut feeling, and instinct, making one alert, vigilant, aware, mindful, and detached from hijackers, emotional vampires, liars, thieves, ancestor traps, bullies, and energy vultures that use fear, lies, and manipulation to lure the mind, body, and emotions.
As we participate in lent, prayer, fasting, and repentance this Gena Christmas tsom, we reflect on the changes, challenges, and tests that have impacted our homes, families, communities, societies, and humanity as a whole. We are humbled to remember the journey of St. Mary and Joseph, who, while pregnant, were chased out of their country, persecuted, and faced an uncertain future. Despite these hardships, they remained full of faith, hope, resilience, and selflessness, trusting in God’s plan, protection, guidance, and insight. St. Gabriel conveyed the message that they were to birth the Son of God. It was St. Mary’s purity, Joseph’s trust, and God’s guiding light that led them to a stable in Bethlehem to give life and birth to the Son of God, the King of Kings, who brought light and love to the world and, through His death, forgave our sins. He showed humanity how to live like Christ to awaken, be enlightened, and follow God’s commandments despite the world’s cruelty.
We, as humanity, are children born from the past and present, living at a challenging crossroads. It is imperative to say #nomore to seeking validation and love from others, as God made you a gift. Awaken, be mindful, seek what is seeking you in spirit, be conscious, and forgive. Make peace within yourself, be humbled by all that God has blessed you with, and surrender to the uncertainties of what your home, community, society, and humanity hold. You are love and light; trust in God’s will, Christ’s birth, and your inner truth.
Loving yourself means being humbled, grateful, and selfless in recognition of God’s gift of life in creating Adam and Eve in His image. It also means forgiving all our sins for breaking and betraying God’s trust and light. God saw the innocence and purity of St. Mary and gave us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to walk on Earth as a human being, suffering for our sins. Jesus lived among us praying, fasting, teaching, meditating, and living. He died on the cross for all our sins, blocked energies, ancestors’ wounds, scars, and pain bodies, showing us how to walk in spirit and truth, purify, heal, and awaken to our authentic light and love given at inception. You are not a mistake; you are enough, exactly where you need to be. Be still and know that silence is God speaking to you, healing you in light, guiding you through challenges, tests, and suffering, and helping you overcome the trauma bonds, codes, programs, and engineering you were born into.
This Gena, in remembrance of Christ’s birth, I hope you pray, fast, meditate, engage in inner engineering, trust the process, say “yes” to life, and let go of whatever is not serving you. Learn to become the peace, love, joy, purity, naivety, innocence, and light that you are. Be wise, sharp, grounded, aware, forgiving, grateful, and resilient. Surrender to your life’s situation seeking, exploring, searching, and researching. Integrate your shadow, inner child, darkness, the dragon & part of you that should not be denied, to fully love all of yourself, despite the fear lead mind chatter, thoughts & those around you that perpentuate their projection of the world. Trust only God, queastion the intentions of your parents, family, community, friends, partner & humanity, to align to your vision in private. If someone keeps disrespecting your boundaries in rejection, in manipulation, by force or abuse, do not betray your intuition or instinct, pray, lent, fast & let go, to see beyond the fog, drama, cloud, chaos & rage, ground to lead in love & light. Forgive yourself for not knowing, its not personal, do not assume, or sulk in fight, flight, freeze & numb, ask queastions, and listen intently with skepticim. be the best at each point in life, & release what you cannot control. Vengeance is Gods, let them, & let God.I am ready, excited, and looking forward to the unfolding of the New Year as I go within to align my vision with my spiritual purpose, as well as a little apprehensive and nervous of a new version, new earth & new begining 💜
Happy Fasting, Merry Christmas,, and a Happy New Year
By Dutchess @deldeyoch
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