Ethiopian Meskel Festivals

Few countries in the world possess such a wealth and variety of ancient legends and fascinating attractions as Ethiopia. Apart from its geographical and historical sites Ethiopia’s cultural and religious festivities add to the beauty of its landscape and its welcoming people. Endowed with marvelous natural and man-made attractions coupled with emerging and expanding eco-tourism, the country offers everything for travelers and adventure seekers alike.

Home to many nations and nationalities and religions, Ethiopia enjoys a multitude of colors and sights to attract a number of tourists from all over the world. The flow of tourists is increasing from year to year and becoming a preferred destination for man.

One of Ethiopia’s most popular attractions to catch the eye and interest of tourists is the yearly Meskel celebration.  According to church history the September Meskel Festival marks the finding of the True Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The festival is ancient, dating back over 1,600 years. It is celebrated with yellow Meskel daisies placed on top of huge bonfires that are lit in the evening in front of the throngs of celebrants. The main Meskel celebration includes the burning of a large bonfire, the Demera, in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa. This takes place on the eve of Meskel, and is based on the belief that Empress Eleni, the mother of the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, had a revelation in a dream. She was told that she should make a bonfire and that the smoke would show her where the True Cross was buried. She ordered the people of Jerusalem to bring wood, and after adding frankincense, the bonfire was lit and the smoke rose high up to the sky. It then fell back to earth and returned to the ground, swirling around at the exact spot where the Cross had been buried.

Sunday school students dressed in traditional Ethiopian plain white clothes furnish color to the event by singing hymns and presenting colorful spiritual and artistic religious shows to the crowd.  Millions of followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church celebrate Meskel every year throughout the country. The festivities also mark the end of the three-month long rainy season and the return of summer to Ethiopia. No rain is expected to occur after Meskel – and indeed it is rare for this to happen. The scenery of this religious festival is a feast for the senses and for the soul.

Tourists who take part in the celebrations often find an urge to come again and again to witness the sheer pleasure and surprise that the festival offers. Many indeed return repeatedly, some for a fifth of sixth time. They fall in love with a festival which offers unique chants and different theatrical scenes. Meskel is unique also as a festival which draws people in thousands and thousands and is observed with calmness and serenity without any worries over security. It offers a colourful ceremony that people of many different confessions and faiths can attend, demonstrating their solidarity and the country’s heritage of unity in diversity – something that one finds all-too-rarely on our planet.

The Meskel festival is unique to Ethiopia. No other country celebrates the Finding of the True Cross, and it is a celebration as old as the actual finding of the True Cross. Ethiopia is now engaged in an effort to register the Meskal festival as one of the World’s Cultural Heritage experiences. We believe it deserves this designation because of the ancient nature of the celebration, its color and significance and the attraction it has for a growing number of tourists as well as the immense participation of the society and of people of all ages which adds to its inimitable quality.  UNESCO was seriously considered Meskel celebrations as a World Cultural experience, contributing significantly to the enrichment of human culture.

Ethiopian Timiket

Timkat, which means "baptism" in Amharic, is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's celebration of Epiphany, which represents the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. The Timkat celebration in Gondar is considered the most colorful, vibrant festival of the year.

Clergy in their ceremonial robes, holding colorful liturgical parasols overhead, congregants in all white, children in crowns and colorful clothes, skipping along to keep up, and curious on lookers create a vibrant parade.

While the Epiphany is celebrated all over the world, Timkat (also spelled Timket , or Timqat ) is unique in its approach. On the eve of Timkat, the ‘tabots’ /replica of the arch of covenant/, or sacred replicas of the Ark of the Covenant (containing the Ten Commandments), are wrapped in luxurious cloth and placed on the head of a priest to be carried out of the church in procession with the clergy. The pilgrimage ends just outside of the city at Fasilides’ Bath, whereupon a Divine Liturgy is celebrated around 2am.

As the vigil winds down and the sun begins to rise, the greater congregation files into the grounds around Fasilides’ Bath. It’s a truly moving sight to see the golden sunlight illuminate the 17th century stone structure, the faithful, dressed in traditional white robes, or ‘shamma’, gathered around the pool, the light reflecting off the water. At this point, the water is blessed and sprinkled upon the faithful. What happens next is what this religious celebration is perhaps best known for: some of the more devout (and perhaps more adventurous) attendees enter the water and submerge themselves, creating a ritual reenactment of the baptism of Jesus, as well as a symbolic renewal of their own baptism.

The crowd of celebrants clergy in their ceremonial robes, holding colorful liturgical parasols overhead, congregants in all white, children in crowns and colorful clothes, skipping along to keep up, and curious onlookers create a vibrant parade through the streets of Gondar as they sing and dance their way back to the church to return the ‘tabots’. Later, locals retire to their homes for feasting.

With more than 40 million Ethiopian orthodox believers, this celebration of Epiphany (two weeks after Western Christians celebrate) is big and beautiful. Be prepared to see stunning silk cloths, chanting and music, intense incense, and long processions of white-robed believers. This is an all-night affair and becomes a wild and wet celebration in the morning after the priest blesses the water. Beyond all that beauty, there is some brutality. You may see sheep slaughtered and some of the smells can be quite pungent. But, if you’re looking for one of the more exotic and passionate annual religious festivals in the world, Timket will introduce you to a soulful experience you’ll remember for a lifetime.