Saturday, March 29, 2014

Meskel festival preparation in Ethiopia

Meskel holyday starts from 327 A.D. but the idea of MESKEL extends back to the day of Jesus Christ. This holyday is in the same day with queen Eleni of Ethiopia found the cross which Jesus Christ died upon during 327 A.D. When the cross went to Rome history told that the people there were celebrating the day. Meskel is not only about the cross it includes different other histories in the Bible. Now the cross is found in Gishen Mariam church, Ethiopia.

In this Ethiopian religious and cultural festival the people that participating the ceremony are the whole Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Christians and others like tourists and Christian followers from different countries. In Meskel festival the churches present different religious shows and the number of these participants of the churches depend on the number of the Christians who will come out to the public to celebrate this day since Meskel is one of the two Ethiopian Orthodox holydays that are celebrated in the public along with Timket.


Meskel is also beneficial other than its religious beliefs. Many tourists come to see this festival and different Nations of Ethiopia celebrate this common religious day so it’s also great in bringing peoples to a common ground together. In this holyday different arts, salms and shows will be presented. In the central city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, the ceremony will be mainly on Meskel Adebabay.

Peoples give Meskel a great value, when presenting the religious songs and thanks to God the people especially the priests and diakonats which are church people wear differently from their routine day to day clothes like Timket holyday and this gives the festival a remarkable look.

The ceremony will be in different languages depending on where the ceremony is taking place including Ge’ez, Amharic, Tigrigna, Oromiffa. Especially Ge’ez is presented in almost everywhere along with other languages.

What is fascinating about the shows is they use different kinds of techniques to express their ideas. Like a car painted and shaped in the form of a sheep to remember Noah’s sheep. There are also different flags and crosses and people will hold Tuaf made from cotton and honey bed which they light it and hold it this creates breath taking appearance. The final program of Meskel holyday is Demera in which a large and woods are collected and will be burnt this program is to remember the legend that queen Eleni found the cross in the same way by following the smoke as told by a dream.

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