Meskel: Ethiopia’s World Heritage Worth Promoting Globally 

BY SOLOMON DIBABA

Following the celebration of the Ethiopian New Year, various religious and cultural festivities are marked indoors among families and communities, outdoors with the entire public in mammoth paraphernalia. Meskel, the holiday celebrated in commemoration of the discovery of the True Cross happens to be one of those holidays marked at outdoor venues. It is one of the 9 religious and cultural holidays celebrated in Ethiopia between August and September.

In addition to its religious values, Meskel is punctuated with the end of the main rainy season (June to September) and the onset of Ethiopian spring in which fields and meadows in the country are carpeted with mesmerizing endemic daisies, locally known as adey abeba, with their captivating yellow colors which majestically cover the Ethiopian fields and hillsides. The daisies prevail only for  two months and disappear over the next ten months to reappear again at the same period the next year. Meskel is also a time when many urbanites return home to their villages with gifts to mark the occasion and Ethiopians at overseas come home to visit their families.

The feast of Meskel starts on the 26th of September with the celebration of the Demera, a ceremonial burning of a large bonfire. It is a special event that is conducted on the eve of Meskel to recall the smoke that supposedly led Empress Helena to the site of the True Cross.

The True Cross,  on which Christ was crucified  was thrown in a ditch or well, and then covered with stones and earth for thousands of years until Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, discovered the place where the cross that was believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus.

Empress Helena had a revelation in a dream to make a bonfire and that the smoke would show her where the true cross was buried. So she ordered the people of Jerusalem to bring wood and make a huge bonfire. After adding frankincense to it the bonfire was lit and the smoke raised high up to the sky and returned to the ground, exactly to the spot where the True Cross had been buried.

The national feast of Demera is held at Meskel Square, a huge square in Addis Ababa, on September 26, the eve of Meskel, the official day of the Feast of the Finding of the True Cross. Young women and men children and the elderly trek to the Demera site to celebrate the occasion.

That morning, the Demera, a tall pyramid of branches, are decorated with adey abeba, daisy-like flowers, prepared and installed at the Meskel Square and in public squares or at intersections. 

At the Meskel Square, in the afternoon, dozens of Sunday school students and members of the clergy move through the square singing spiritual songs with ululations that last for hours. As darkness begins to set in, the demera is set ablaze in joyful jubilation illuminating the skylight of Addis Ababa. 

The following day, the official day of the feast of the finding of the True Cross, Ethiopians attend liturgy and a feast and celebrate with family and friends. Many use the ashes from the Demera to mark their foreheads with a shape of a cross which they think will protect them from evil spirits. The Demera festival of the Meskel holiday, dates back to 1600 years, has been registered as world intangible heritage by UNESCO in December 2013, as the first intangible Ethiopian heritage. 

During Meskel festival, a special species of birds known as ‘YeMeskel Wof  -Meskel’s Bird’ also appears. Generally, the word 'YeMeskel Wof' is used to call the four bird species, namely the northern red bishops, indigo-birds, whydah and widow birds, and yet it has more than ten species under it.  These birds are also enjoyed by bird watchers and tourists during Meskel. 

These birds are endemic to Ethiopia, and do not migrate from one place to another as other birds do. As September, Ethiopia’s first month, is their reproduction season, the colors of their feathers gets changed in order to attract opposite sexes. Due to this change, it looks that they are new birds that appear only at this time of the 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 and in tourist attraction areas in the northern part of the country known as the historical route among tourists and travel agencies catering to tourism in the country. With the establishment of a number of eco-resorts in the country and corridor development programs and the Adwa Memorial Museum, tourists can extend their stay in the country and pay visits to these ecological tourist sites. 

Meskel is celebrated as a grand religious occasion among the Ethiopian Orthodox believers because it is believed that a part of the True Cross has been brought to Ethiopia. It is said to be kept at Amba Gishen, which itself has a shape a cross. 

The cross has a special meaning for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Christians of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church dangle the symbol of the cross on their neck. Priests accompanied with Sunday school students and the faithful carry various types of cross with their ceremonial staff in conducting mass and other forms of prayers including a ceremonial blessings and sanctifications.

As one writer observed there is no country in the world that matches Ethiopia in the number of forms and types of its crosses. Ever 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.

Ethiopia boasts various types of crosses that are used on various religious and cultural occasions. The most popular ones are the crosses of Lalibela, Axum and Gondar. Tourists from various countries visiting Ethiopia make sure that they purchase various types of Ethiopian crosses that are made from silver and bronze, as well as carved from wood and marble.

This year’s Meskel celebration also coincides with World Tourism Day. Thousands of tourists from all over the world are expected to arrive in Addis Ababa and regional towns to mark the event. Meskel is a season of reunion of families who were separated during the rainy reason due to torrential rains and over flooded rivers.