Holy Day

A few times now I've seen the word holiday written as "holy day" in Ethiopia. Holidays in the US are usually nationalistic in origin, such as Presidents' Day or Labor Day. Japan also has holidays like this, such as Constitution Day and the Emperor's Birthday, in addition to what seem like purely thematic days--sports day, respect for the aged day, ocean day and so on--where no one actually does anything related to that theme (i.e. I don't see anyone lining up at senior citizen centers with baked goods eager to pay their respect). Likewise, the first holiday I experienced in Ethiopia was last week for Adwa Day to remember the victory over the Italians in 1896.
However, today is a holiday in the holy day sense of the word since everyone gets the day off for the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. So I suppose it is only appropriate to wish everyone a Merry Muhammadmas! So far I haven't seen any special celebrations, no strings of lights or Muhammadmas trees in the town square, but I'm sure the Muslim population living in Ethiopia (about 35%) are observing this day, especially in the east near Jijiga and Harari where the Harar Mosque, a major pilgrimage site, is located.
For us, today we'll be headed west to the Amahara region for a few days. I'm looking forward to seeing Bahir Dar and Lake Tana, and hopefully posting about some more good restaurants.