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Category Archives: True Cross

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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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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Crosses, Thanksgiving and Fasts

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Cross shaped Amba at Gishen Mariam

In Ethiopia, October kicks off with big celebrations. This Sunday (1st October) is Meskerem 21, is one of the biggest Mariam days in the year, commonly called Gishen Mariam after a church in Wollo, not far from Dessie on a cross shaped Amba properly called Gishen Debre Kerbe which holds its annual saint’s day on this date.

There are reportedly documents at Gishen that state that Emperor Zara Yaqob (who reigned in the mid 15th century), bought a piece of the “True Cross’ on which Jesus was crucified and buried it at Gishen Debre Kerbe under the church of Egyziabher Ab (Literally God the Father). There are in fact four churches on Gishen Debre Kerbe: Egyziabher Ab, Gishen Mariam, Kidus Gabriel and Kidus Mikael (Kidus is Saint). Gishen Mariam is one of the biggest pilgrimages in Ethiopia with thousands of pilgrims making their way up the narrow mountain paths to celebrate this day at the end of the rainy season.

Celebrations in 1903 at Lake Hora

Sunday 1st of October is also the culmination of the Oromo festival of Ireeycha Birra, a thanksgiving ceremony most famously celebrated beside Lake Arsadi outside of Bishoftu some 50 km south east from Addis Ababa. This day is actually the climax and most important day of several weeks of celebration. Thousands of Oromo people descend on the town and lake from across the region.
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The celebration marks the end of the rainy season and the Oromo people give thanks to God for his bounty and pray for peace and reconciliation among humans and with God. The festival is led by the elders or wise men known as haayyuu who lead the blessings by the lake and make speeches. Tragically last year there was a large loss of life at this festival.

Coptic Icon depicting Holy Family fleeing to Egypt

For those new to Ethiopia you may not be aware that the year is punctuated by fasts of varying length and importance. Each Wednesday and Friday is a fasting day, except for a month or so following Easter when people will have been fasting for 55 days in the run up to Easter. A fast implies that people eat one meal a day in the afternoon or early evening and follow a strictly vegan diet (although many do still each fish which used to be accepted but not so much these days).

On 6th October the Tsige Tsom (fast) starts and runs for 40 days through to 15th November Kusquam Mariam day and it marks the exile of the Holy Family when they fled their land and took refuge in Egypt to be away from King Herod and his slaughter of infants. It ends on the day that commemorates Kusquam, a village in upper Egypt where the holy family were said to have lived during their exile in Egypt. This fast is however considered optional and only clergy are required to fast, but never the less most establishments will serve vegan options throughout this fast.

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