finding of the true cross…

27th September 2018

We arrived at Gonder on a very special day;  the festival of Meskel. It is the second most important celebration in Ethiopia and celebrates the story of the people finding the true cross – the cross which Jesus was crucified on…

There were huge crowds of people and so much police/security presence. We were privileged to get a front row view – mainly because we were white tourists it seemed – but for once I was happy to be ‘prioritised’ in that way cause we had an amazing view of the festivities.

There were tons of priests, a long speech of some sort and then the big bonfire topped with a cross was lit. And the crowd went wild!!

We snuck out before the fire had finished to avoid the many people who would shortly be heading back to their own parts of town or villages to have their own smaller celebrations and bonfires. Also we saw later in the day that people would come back to pick up the ashes from the bonfire for blessings…

In the afternoon we went on a quick tour of another church (I had started to be ‘churched out’ at this point, but it did have some cool paintings) and an interesting look at the Royal enclosure… looked very European build actually!

Our local guide for the day was great – so enthusiastic and he was telling us how important the Meskel festival is for dating as well. All the women are out and about, all dressed up, hair done, looking beautiful so it’s the best time to meet someone apparently. He told us that before the time of mobile phones, a guy would bring lemons and throw a lemon at the girl he fancied… if she picked it up she was interested or she could cruelly just let it lie on the floor, if not! Most hilarious story so far! Why lemons…why?!? Haha