|
Festivals |
|
|
|
|
There are many great national and local holidays and celebrations throughout the year and all over the country. Every one of the 54,000 parish churches and the 800 monasteries of the Orthodox Tewahido church all have at least one minor monthly and one major annual festival.
These may share origins with Christian, Moslem and tribal festivals elsewhere in the world but have unique indigenous characteristics in Ethiopia.
If you can, try to plan your trip around one of the following spectacular festivals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MESKEL |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It is celebrated for the commemoration of the finding of the true cross of Jesus Christ by Empress Helena, on September 26 each year. This colorful celebration is a bonfire topped with an image of a cross to which flowers of golden Yellow Daises (Adey Abeba) are tied and priests in full ceremonial dresses bless the bonfire before it is lit.
Meskal has been celebrated in the country for over 1600 years. The word actually means "cross" and the feast commemorates the discovery of the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, by the Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GENNA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Genna (Ethiopian Christmas) one of the major religious celebrations in Ethiopia but unlike many parts of the world, Christmas Day is celebrated on 7 January and not 25 December. Also unlike other parts of the world, the emphasis is on the religious aspect of the day.
The Ethiopian Christmas, also called Lidet, is not the primary religious and secular festival that it has become in western countries. Falling on 7 th January, it is celebrated seriously by a church service that goes on throughout the night, with people moving from one church to another, traditionally, young men played a game that is similar to hockey, called Genna, on this day and now Christmas has also come to be known by that name. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TIMKET (EPEPHANY) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It is the most colorful and greatest festival of the year, falling on 19 January, just two weeks after Genna. It is actually a three day affair, beginning on the eve of Timkat with dramatic processions (Ketera), when the priests remove the tabots (replicas of the tablets which were written by finger of God and given to Moses) from each church and bless the water of the pool or river where the next day's celebration will take place.
The following morning, the great day itself, Christ's baptism in the River Jordan by John is commemorated. The water is blessed and sprinkled over everyone in a ceremony where the faithful renew their vows to the church. The third day is devoted to the archangel St. Michael, one of Ethiopia's most popular saints.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Back to Top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Designed and Hosted by Hosthabesha.com, Ethiopian web hosting and designing company.
