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Category Archives: Meskal

Dorze Campfire - villagers dancing

Melkam Addis Amet – Happy New Year – as the holiday season starts.

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As the rainy season – the Kremt – begins to recede, Ethiopians prepare to celebrate their new year – saying goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017.   If you want to know about the why’s and wherefores of the Ethiopia’s unique calendar please check this earlier blog article.

Meskal flowers – Adey Ababa -in Meket, North Wollo -a symbol for the new year.

The New Year holiday falls on a Wednesday this year (Wed 11 Sep) -a fasting day -and as a result the normal celebratory meat based food can’t be consumed by Orthodox Christians. So many will postpone the feasting on such dishes as dorowot (a spicy chicken stew) until Thursday. However only the Wednesday is a national holiday.

A few days later on Monday 16 Sep, Ethiopia’s muslims will celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, known as Mowleid, which is also a national holiday.

A little more than a week later is the celebration of Meskal, when the Orthodox community celebrate the finding of the True Cross in Jerusalem by St Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine in 327 AD.  The digging started on Meskerem 17  (27 Sep) and the cross itself was recovered on Megabit 10 (19 March) … for more background about this holiday check out this article I wrote a few years ago.

Meskal is celebrated across Ethiopia with bonfires (Demera)  lit with a cross sticking up from the centre. The way the cross falls is seen as a prediction of fortune for the community and nation. In many places the bonfire is on the eve of Meskal but in some places it is lit on the morning of the holiday. One such place is Adigrat in Tigray, where Meskal is a very big celebration and most people who come from the town return for this big event. Bars have seating on the roads and everybody celebrates – in some ways it feels a bit like Ethiopia’s answer to the Munich Oktoberberfest.

But probably the most famous celebrations of Meskal are found in the peoples of the South West of Ethiopia – the Gurage, the Dorze and the Gamo peoples. The days leading up to the Meskal holiday itself are  each separate and have their own celebrations – eating of special prepared green (gomen), the day slaughtering of the oxen, a day for the women and so on.  There is much dancing and cultural foods are eaten. And this year Meskal also falls on a fasting day – Friday, so a lot of the celebration with traditional foods like kitty – a delicious minced meat marinated in butter and spices and traditionally served raw, will be eaten on the Saturday.

In the days leading up to Meskal thousands of Addis Ababans flock to these areas, notably to Gurage which is closest, to enjoy this authentic celebration of the famous holiday.

Celebrations in 1903 at Lake Hora

There is yet another holiday to come before the end of Meskal – the first month of the Ethiopian Calendar: Irreeychaa.  This is a traditional Oromo thanks giving festival that celebrates the end of the rainy season. The local population led by elders will congregate, most typically at lakes and prayers are said to Waaqua (God) and freshly cut flowers and grass laid on the lake.  The largest celebration was for many years at Bishoftu, where there are many crater lakes, however now it is also celebrated in Addis Ababa, usually on the Saturday and then the Sunday at Bishoftu and in other regional centres.

Cross shaped Amba at Gishen Mariam

There is also one very special Saints’ day in Meskerem:- Gishen Mariam. This festival is also linked to the True Cross and celebrates that a fragment of the true cross is buried at the Mariam church on mountain. This is the location of one of Ethiopia’s most famous pilgrimages, as thousands of pilgrims stream up the narrow mountain roads and clamber up the steep paths from their vehicles to reach the mountain top churches.

More details about both Irreeychaa and Gishen Mariam can be found in this article called Crosses, Thanksgiving and Fasts

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Meskal flower seller in Addis

Melkam Meskal – best wishes for the Meskal Holiday

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The Demera – Bonfire – for Meskal

Today across much of Ethiopia food is being prepared for tomorrows Meskal holiday, and bonfires are built and decorated with Meskal flowers ( a yellow daisy) and national flags. Tonight many will light the bonfires, although in some places they are lit tomorrow.

Meskal commemorates that St. Helena found the True Cross of Christ in Jerusalem. The Cross had healing powers after Jesus’ crucifixion which was attracting many converts, so the Jews threw the Cross into a rubbish disposal pit, the location of which over the centuries, became lost

In 327 A.D. the mother of King Constantine, Queen Helena, made a trip to Jerusalem to find the Cross. She was advised by an old man called Kiriakos to light a bonfire with incense and be guides by the smoke.  Helena’s people started digging at the spot on

A Meskal Demera (bonfire) built by locals in Addis

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Across many of the peoples south and west of Addis – such as Gurage and Wolaita, Meskal is celebrated over several days and is the major celebration of the year. Meskal also comes at the point where the rainy season -the kremt

Meskal flower seller in Addis

Meskal flower seller in Addis

– is ending. In Addis Ababa where the kremt is longer there are typically still a week or two of sporadic rains, but further north where it is drier the rains have pretty much finished by Meskal. So the holiday also marks the onset of what the greenest season that is often (rather inaccurately) described as spring. The Meskal daisy can be seen growing in fields and open lands across the highlands.

Now is the time to start planning your trip out of Addis. The country is opening for tourism. All those in the tourism sector, hotel staff, guides, cooks, drivers etc are desperate to work and earn something. Foreign tourists are very few and so the tourist sites are all but empty, and it is a wonderful chance to see them without the crowds.

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Melkam Meskal

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The Demera – Bonfire – for Meskal

Ethiopia celebrates the finding of the True Cross – lighting bonfires across the country. The cross at the centre of the bonfire eventually falls – and the direction of its fall predicts whether the year will be good and peaceful.

Lighting the chubo

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used to light the main fire. It is often decorated with the beautiful Meskal flowers that are everywhere at the end of the rainy season.

Tesfa Tours wishes everyone a lovely Meskal Holiday (This year on 28 Sept) and a peaceful and happy year.

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The death of King Lalibela Commemorated Today

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A painting of Saint-King Lalibela, on a canvas in Lalibela

A painting of Saint-King Lalibela, on a canvas in Lalibela

Today, 19th June / Senay 12, is known as Senay Mikael and is an important Saint’s day across the country. But in Lalibela it is the most important holy day in Lalibela after Gena, for it is the anniversary of the death 796 years ago, of the Saint-King Lalibela, whose name the town has taken. He is said to have died in 1221 and is renown as the architect of the amazing labyrinth of rock hewn churches which are the focus of the town of Lalibela, formerly known as Roha.

Most sources available on the internet are vague on when was King Lalibela born and how long he lived. Entries from the late Richard Pankhurst and other well researched entries such as museums are vague about his year of birth often preferring to give his dates as late 12th

Entrance to Mikael & Golgotta in Lalibela

Entrance to Mikael & Golgotta in Lalibela

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His tomb is in the church Golgota which adjoins Beta Mikael

LalibelaGolgotta saint bas releif

Bas Relief in Golgotha church in Lalibela

in the main cluster of churches in Lalibela, making this a very special double annual saint’s day. Yesterday on the eve of the big day, there was singing and chanting around Bet Mikael and Golgotta (where the Saint-King is buried) and this morning the two tabots (Mikael and Lalibela) were paraded out to a nearby tent with great pomp and celebration, and an hour or so after returned to the church. There is also an especially big market today full of livestock and other local produce, even though its not the usual Saturday market day.

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Melcam Meskal

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A Meskal Demera (bonfire) built by locals in Addis

A Meskal Demera (bonfire) built by locals in Addis

Today is the eve of Meskal, and Addis Ababa has bonfires growing on street corners and roundabouts all over the city, with long bundles of sticks, huge bunches of bright yellow Meskal daisies and of bright green grass for sale. The Meskal daisy is the image most associated with the holiday, as it grows wild across meadows and grasslands throughout the highlands of Ethiopia.

Meskal (itself means cross) is a ceremony that commemorates the Finding of the True Cross.  Legend has it that in 326 AD, Queen Eleni (Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great) was guided by a dream to light a fire and follow the smoke to find the True Cross. The smoke rose high in the sky

decorations around Addis

decorations around Addis

and descended at the point where she found the Cross.

Across Ethiopia tonight (and for some tomorrow) bonfires will be lit commemorating this event. There are various traditions which include the prediction as to the harvest by the direction in which the cross in the fire falls. Also people mark their foreheads in the sign of the cross with the ash from the fire.

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A small Meskal bonfire at Kebena, dropped in the Ethiopian flag, with a cross on the top.

A small Meskal bonfire at Kebena, dropped in the Ethiopian flag, with a cross on the top.

Mariam celebrated a major pilgrimage and festival just after Meskal each year.

A good place to join in the Meskal celebrations is with the villages on the Tesfa Treks in Wollo and Tigray. In Adigrat (Tigray) and in the villages around there is a very big Meskal celebration.

Best wishes to all for a peaceful and fun Meskal demera tonight and a joyful holiday tomorrow.

 

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Wake up in the Agame mountains – Tigray

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Panoramic View from Gohgot guesthouse at sunrise

Panoramic View from Gohgot Village guesthouse in Tigray at sunrise

How about waking up to see the Agame mountains in Tigray lit up with the early morning sun?

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