The story behind the day
Meskel, the Feast of the Cross, is one of the great festivals of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It commemorates the finding of the True Cross, by tradition by Queen Elena, the Ethiopian form of Helena, the mother of Constantine. It falls on 17 Mäskäräm, which is 27 September or, in some years, 28 September. On or just before that day a great bonfire, the Demera, is lit, and in 2013 UNESCO added Ethiopia's celebration to its list of intangible cultural heritage.[1–4]
Origins
By tradition the empress Helena, whom Ethiopian sources call Elena, travelled to Jerusalem to find the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Ethiopian tradition adds that she lit a bonfire and that its smoke showed her the place where the Cross lay buried. Reference works and scholarly writing call the finding a legend, and one recent study proposes that the cross was not found by Helena at all.[1, 5–6]
What it marks
Meskel is a major holiday, celebrated nationwide by people of every age, language and ethnicity. In the church's memory it marks the finding of the Cross, and tradition holds that a fragment of the True Cross is preserved at the church of Gishen Mariam, in the monastery of Amba Gǝšän in northern Ethiopia. Popular belief also ties the festival to new beginnings, and the pyre is decorated with Meskel daisies, which bloom in these weeks and which UNESCO says symbolise the New Year. Believers hold that taking part brings blessings from the Holy Cross.[1, 7–11]
How it is kept
In Meskel Square in Addis Ababa a great pyre, the Demera, is built, and the head of the church, the patriarch, sets it alight. Accounts differ on the timing. UNESCO dates the festival to 26 September and describes the bonfire as its opening, Mahibere Kidusan, the Ethiopian Church's Sunday School department, places the Demera on 26 September and Meskel itself on the day after, and a scholarly review places the bonfire on the feast day, 17 Mäskäräm. Believers trace the cross on their foreheads with the ashes, and some jump over the ashes to receive a blessing. In 2013 UNESCO inscribed the feast on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, where it is listed as the commemoration of the finding of the True Cross.[3–4, 11–13]
Across traditions
Other Orthodox churches celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on 14 September, a feast bound up from its beginnings with the finding of the Cross.[14]
Sources
Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.
- VerifiedUNESCO ich; eotcmk.org.
- Verifiedjournals.sub.uni-hamburg.de; eotcmk.org.
- CorrectedUNESCO ich; eotcmk.org; journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de.
- VerifiedUNESCO ich; journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de.
- Correctedeotcmk.org; journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com, Cross; journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de.
- Verifiedjournals.sub.uni-hamburg.de; UNESCO 2019.
- Verifiedeotcmk.org; journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de.
- Verifiedjournals.sub.uni-hamburg.de; UNESCO ich.
- VerifiedUNESCO ich; eotcmk.org.
- VerifiedUNESCO 2019; journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de.
- CorrectedUNESCO ich; eotcmk.org.
- Correctedeotcmk.org; journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de.
- CorrectedOrthodox Church in America, Elevation of the Cross; New Catholic Encyclopedia, Cross, Encyclopedia.com.