Happy Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel festival to all
Ethiopians!
One of our festivals that have contributed to the promotion of women in our country is the festival of Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel. In this summer season when the earth is covered with green color, in the mid-August, in Tigray and Amhara States, young women come out dressed in their special cultural clothes with green bulrush on their waist long down to below their knees over the clothes and dance with their waists in a horizontal circular pattern.
The fact that our squares were usually dominated by men only in the days of the festival, such as the Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel Festival, is like a cold spring found in a desert. The festival had irreplaceable role in letting women express their thoughts, cultures, and aspirations in their poetry, songs and dances. That is why it is to this day festival that young women look forward to all year long enthusiastically.
The month of August is a month in which men and women celebrate separately their own unique festivals that demonstrate equality. Young men celebrate the festival of Buhe with torches, make booths, and scourge. The dance is where we can hear the thoughts of young men, measure their progress, and know their aspirations. It’s also time to hear the voices and thoughts of young women.
The Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel Festival is a celebration of our collective and cultural heritage as a people. Although the festival is celebrated with different names in different parts of our country, its basic manifestation is social and cultural ties. It is the symbol of our togetherness in differences and unity in national affairs.
As Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel Festival has religious origin, it has great value in raising people’s spirits. It is also the thought of young women that we need today more than ever before; the thought of drowsiness instead of descending, bowing and swiftly moving upward.
The famous author of our country, Solomon Dressa, said: “An upward slope, a downward slope, a downward seen slope.” Rising and descending are issues of perspective. Where we stand is important. If we see trouble at the root of it, it threatens and overwhelms us.
However, when we see trouble as an eagle, we find it easier and easier. We believe that we can do it, we can remove it. Getting down from the altitude is easy for us to climb, but climbing out of that we had to climb would be difficult.
It not only climbs back the ladder, but it also helps us understand that we can rise higher. This is why we need to fix the problem area before we can get up to fix the problem. That is why we need to grow and see our problems from above.
There are some who do not believe that many of the problems that have plagued Ethiopia can be solved and permanently eradicated. The difference between the two does not come from the information you have acquired and the knowledge you have acquired. It comes from where you stand.
Young women who decide to do something like Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel, will see the problems from above below themselves. They find themselves above the problems unlike those who see themselves below the problems.
Come on, let’s be like the girls of Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel. It is a festival that goes back thousands of years. It has been celebrated not only at times of happiness but also in difficult times. This ceremony was celebrated in a time when we were not paying attention to our sister’s affairs and kept women at home for only domestic purposes.
Although they were highly oppressed, they never lost hope but kept on struggling. If they have discouraged themselves at that time, they would not have celebrated the festival.
Instead of bowing down to their problems, they preferred ignoring their problems. That is why they chose to look from the top. Such noble ideals are one of the best moral providing festivals of our nation in the face of difficult trials. And let us see our problems from above to overcome them easily. Let us fly with our Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel young women to solve all the problems together.
Happy Ashenda, Shadey, Ashendiye and Solel festival.
May Ethiopia be proud, honored, and prosperous by the efforts of its children!
God bless Ethiopia and its people.
The Ethiopian Herald August 23/2019
TRANSLATED BY DIRRIBA TESHOME
