Festivals and Holidays 

Several festivals are celebrated throughout the year in Ethiopia. During celebrations of festivals, the best clothes are worn, food and drink are plentiful, musicians play and people dance and sing. Events range from those that have international appeal to small seasonal community-based festivals that attract only local interests.

Ethiopian festival celebrations are grand and colorful, mostly religious over several days. Prominent Christian holidays include Kidus Yohannes (New Year) Meskel (Finding of the True Cross), Gena (Christmas), Timket (Epiphany) and Fasika (Easter). Other widely celebrated festivals are Irrechaa, Fichee Chambalala and Ashenda.

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Ethiopian New Year
Ethiopian New Year takes place on September 11 known as Enkutatash meaning “Gift of Jewels” the day coincides with the saints’ day of St. John the Baptist. The New Year is based on Julian calendar and has 13 months (12 months of 30 days and 13th month with 5 days/ 6 in leap year). This calendar is 7 years and 8 months behind the Western Gregorian Calendar. The New Year signifies the end of the rainy season and the lush green landscape following the rainy season. The scenery is picturesque, dotted with Meskel flowers (yellow daisy). Torches of dry wood are traditionally burned in front of houses on New Year’s Eve and on the holiday morning girls wearing traditional dress go out for singing door-to-door marking the New Year. 
 

Meskel 

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Meskel Celebration, a UNESCO-inscribed intangible world heritage, is a religious holiday held on September 27th to commemorate the discovery of the True Cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified. The legend goes that in the 4th century AD, the Roman Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, had a visionary dream where to find the cross. She ordered the people of Jerusalem to collect wood and set alight, and the smoke from a pile of bonfires indicated where the cross was buried. The word Meskel means cross. Meskel is celebrated for two days starting on September 26th the Damera, the eve of Meskel at which bonfires built and topped by crossed flowers are alight, and September 27th the holiday people mark cross their forehead from the ashes of the burnt bonfire and feasting takes place. The most exuberant celebration of all is hosted by the Gurage people.

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Gena (Christmas)
Gena is the Ethiopian Christmas celebrated on January 7th which marks the end of the 40-day fasting period of Advent. On Gena Christmas Eve, there is a church service in Ethiopian Orthodox through the night, followed by a colorful celebration with family and friends on the holiday. Lalibela is the most popular place to celebrate Gena, with thousands of pilgrims flocking to the city for the holiday.

Timket (Epiphany)
Timket (Ethiopian Epiphany) is celebrated on January 19th with ceremonies involving the replicas of the Ark of the Covenant (Tabots) from each Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Churches that are escorted by priests carrying it and deacons holding processional crosses to a common place for the ceremony. Staying the night there, the next day is designated for a religious assembly of masses to be sprinkled with the holy water. Later in the ceremony, the Tabots return to their respective churches. It is a celebration marked by traditional singing and dancing, then after. Timket is a UNESCO world heritage as well and most colorfully celebrated in Gondar city, Fasil Royal Bath.

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Fasica (Easter)
Fasica is an Ethiopian Easter that is celebrated in union with Orthodox Easter celebrations around the world, falling in April or May on a Sunday date. It is the most important holiday in the Ethiopian Orthodox Calendar celebrated after a 55-day-long fasting, where no meat or dairy products are consumed. Strict followers generally consume one meal per day, at this time. Church services are attended on the eve before the holiday, where revelers participate in a colorful service lit with candles. The next day, families and friends celebrate the feast with “Doro Wot”, a spicy chicken stew as the most traditional food served for Fasica in households. The week before Fasica is Palm Sunday “Hossaina” colorfully observed in Aksum and the following Sunday after Fasica is an unofficial “second Fasica”.

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Irrechaa Festival
One of the distinct Thanksgiving celebrations in the traditional religion of the Oromos (Waaqeffannaa) is called Irrechaa which means Thanksgiving and has taken place for thousands of years. The festival held in October attracts many people from all walks of life to celebrate the colorful event for thankfulness, blessings, and prayers of “Waqqa”, asking for peace and harmony of nature, mankind, animals, and the country. The festival is markedly celebrated in the town of Bishoftu lake Hora-Arsedi.

Ashenda Festival
Ashendiye/ Shadey/ Solel in different parts of Amhara region and Ashenda in Tigray region is a colorful ceremony celebrated in northern Ethiopia in August. It is distinct in a way that girls and young women dress traditional costume made of woven cotton ornamented with jewelries from top to bottom and perform a lot of traditional singing and dancing. Their traditional hairstyle is called “Shuruba” that has different designs.

Fichee Chambalala
Fichee-Chambalala is Sidama people’s New-Year celebration usually held in June or July. According to oral tradition, Fichee commemorates a Sidama woman that visited her parents and relatives once a year after her marriage, bringing Buurisame, a meal prepared from false banana, milk and butter shared with neighbors. Fichee has since become a unifying symbol of the Sidama people. Communal events take place throughout the festival including traditional singing and dancing with participants regardless of age, gender and social status.