Meskel - the Ethiopian festival of the Finding of the True Cross, lit by a bonfire of thorn bushes on September 27

Meskel is an Ethiopian Christian festival on September 27, commemorating the finding of the True Cross. A great bonfire of thorn bushes is lit at dawn, the faithful gather barefoot, and the ash is pressed onto their foreheads as a blessing.

The one-line summary

Ethiopian and Eritrean Christian festival on September 27, marking the finding of the True Cross. Religious category, standard tier. A public holiday in Ethiopia.

Origin

The festival commemorates the discovery of the True Cross. According to the tradition, the cross on which Christ was crucified was found in 326 by ab Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine, after she had been shown the site in a vision and had excavated there. Meskel marks the finding of the cross rather than its manufacture, which is a distinction the Latin West draws on a different date in May.

The festival arrived in Ethiopia through the fourth-century Aksumite church, which had contacts with the Mediterranean Christian world early enough to receive the story. The meskel daisy - Yemane dussia - blooms in the highlands around the feast and gives the festival its name as well as its flower.

When it falls

September 27, fixed. It is reached through the Ethiopian calendar, which counts thirteen months and resets the new year to September 21. September 27 therefore sits a fixed six days after Enkutatash in every year, not because it is simply a Gregorian date but because the Ethiopian calendar is kept in alignment with the solar year by that reset.

How it is observed

A bonfire is built at dawn from a great heap of thorn bushes - shidy - and the faithful gather barefoot behind the bishop, many having walked from the surrounding towns. Processional crosses are carried, drums and sistrum are played, and the meskel daisy is carried in and laid at the foot of the fire.

When the fire has burned down, the ash is collected and distributed, and the faithful press a mark of it onto their foreheads as a blessing. The thorns are held to recall the Crown of Thorns. The day is also marked with crowds, food stalls, and the blessing of the meskel daisies that will be kept in homes for the year.

Public status

Meskel is a public holiday in Ethiopia. It is one of the two great Ethiopian Christian feasts, the other being Timkat, the January Epiphany festival.

Where it is contested

Meskel is not contested within the Orthodox traditions that keep it. Its interest lies in the difference it marks from the Latin calendar: Catholics and Protestants commemorate the Finding of the Cross on May 3, and the fact that Ethiopian Christians keep a different date for the same historical claim is a visible reminder of how far apart the Christian calendars have drifted.

Related holidays

Meskel opens the Ethiopian autumn festival season and shares September withEnkutatash, the Ethiopian new year, which uses the same daisy as its emblem. The other great Ethiopian Christian feast is Timkat, the Epiphany festival of January.

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica - Meskel(the finding of the True Cross and the Ethiopian observance).
• Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church(the feast, the bonfire rite and the blessing of the ash).
• Encyclopaedia Britannica - Ethiopia(the thirteen-month calendar and the September festival season).
• UNESCO - Intangible Cultural Heritage(documentation of Ethiopian festival and craft traditions).