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September heralds the end of Ethiopia’s cold, cloudy and rainy season, where torrential rains subside and yellow daisies known locally as Adey Abeba line the country’s fields and meadows, but only to disappear in a couple of weeks. Ye Meskel Wof, indigenous Ethiopian birds fly over the skylines of cities and towns across the country only once in September.
September is a month of cultural and religious celebrations in Ethiopia. Two of the celebration, Enkutatash, the Ethiopian New Year that falls on September 11 – or the 12th in a leap year, and Meskel are celebrated in the same month.
Meskel, which literally means cross, has been celebrated in Ethiopia for over 1600 years as an open air religious festival and is registered with UNESCO in December 2013 as an Intangible World Heritage Site.
It is a religious and cultural event celebrated on the advent of the discovery of the true cross on which Jesus was crucified and the finding of this cross dates back to 326 AD Legend has it that Queen Elena, mother of Constantine the Great, also known As Queen Eleni in Ethiopia, she undertook the search for the true cross and found the location of the cross through a dream, after which she made a bonfire whose smoke gave her the direct location of the place where the cross was buried.
On the eve of Meskel, Demera is burned, a tradition in which a huge bonfire is prepared attached to a tree with green leaves in commemoration of how the true cross was found through the guidance of a bonfire smoke. Heads of the Tewahedo Ethiopian Orthodox Church at all levels, deacons and Sunday school children sing songs specially prepared for the occasion and surround the Demera several times in which the bonfire is set alight until it turns to ashes . As it burns and collapses, the direction the Demera falls is interpreted as a sign of some kind of good fortune or ill omen that could prevail over the locality in which the Demera burns. Rain is usually expected to put out the fire, and when it does, the year is expected to be prosperous. In most towns, the celebration continues into the night.
The next day when it is the royal Meskel, people go to the Demera site and use the ashes to mark their foreheads with the sign of the cross. There would be plenty to eat and drink while people celebrated together.
‘Ye Meskel Wof’ is used to call the four species of birds, namely the northern red bishops, the indigo birds, the whydah birds and the widows, and yet it has more than ten species underneath. Bird watchers also enjoy these birds during Meskel.
These birds are endemic to Ethiopia and do not migrate from place to place like other birds do. Starting in September, Ethiopia’s first month, is its breeding season, the colors of its feathers change to attract opposite sexes. Due to this change, it seems that they are new birds that appear only at this time of year.
Meskel also marks a tourist season in Ethiopia. Thousands of tourists from many countries converge on Ethiopia to enjoy the ceremonies during the Meskel celebrations. They particularly enjoy celebrating Meskel in Addis Ababa at Meskel Square, which is now built anew.
The cross has a special meaning for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. They hang the symbol of the cross around their neck to show that they are Christian and many people, both in urban and rural areas, make a gesture of the cross before the food they have prepared to eat as a quick gesture of thanksgiving. for the food they eat. they are ready to eat.
Priests carry various types of crosses with their ceremonial staff when performing mass and other forms of prayers, including ceremonial blessings and the sanctification of the holy waters intended to heal the sick and drive out evil spirits from people suspected of being possessed by heck.
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Mario De Salvo on his Ethiopian crosses says that “There is no country in the world that equals Ethiopia in the number of forms and types of its crosses. Since Ethiopia’s conversion to Christianity, the cross has appeared almost universally, not only as a liturgical instrument in churches and monasteries, but also in common devotion and in daily life. “
As a major tourist attraction season in the country, Meskel should be an occasion when thousands of tourists not only from Europe, the United States and Asia, but also from African countries converge on Ethiopia.
Meskel is celebrated in Ethiopia in various cultural contexts throughout the country. Some might think that Meskel is marked only by membership of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of Tewahedo, but in reality, the season is marked across the country as a season out of the rainy season from dark to light and a gathering occasion. family and reconciliation period.
