The story
Lake Tana Monastery Festival in Lake Tana
Lake Tana's islands hold roughly twenty historic monasteries, and several mark their own annual feast days, most notably the Festival of the Virgin Mary at Ura Kidane Mihret on the Zege Peninsula. Because the celebration varies by monastery and calendar, visitors should confirm which specific island and feast day they mean rather than expecting one single unified event.
Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile and Ethiopia's largest lake, holds around twenty historic monasteries scattered across its islands and peninsulas, several founded as early as the fourteenth century under Emperor Amda Tsion, and more than one of these communities holds its own annual festival tied to the saint or relic housed in its church.