At the celebration of Timiket in the city of Gondar which has been inscribed under UNESCO’s list of World Intangible Cultural Heritages recently, President Sahle-Work Zewide remarked that registering the Timiket Festival (Ethiopian Epiphany) is beneficiary to build the nation’s image in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Congratulating Ethiopians for the inscription of the Festival, the President also stressed that the government will put more efforts forward to register other heritages of the nation.
Taking the benefits of registering the Festival at international level in to account, the nation has been envisioning putting its numerous cultural and natural sites under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Besides the already inscribed heritages, registering other heritages is part of the plan to be enlisted in tangible heritages.
Within this month only, the nation has celebrated three religious holidays-Gena,/Ethiopian Christmas/, Timiket (Epiphany) followed by the Deraro Holiday which is the New Year of Gedeo people, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State.
Ethiopian Christmas (Gena) and Timiket are amongst the well- known and colorful street religious celebrations of the Ethiopian Orthodox church along with their spectacular religious rituals that catch the eye of thousands of tourists.
With a few days after a three day colorful celebration of Timiket festival, comes the Deraro Festival, which is also the other street festival.
Just like the other unique ethnic-groups in the nation, the Gedeo people celebrate the Festival warmly and colorfully.
As sources indicate, ‘Deraro’ is a thanksgiving festival that the Gedeo people celebrate it right after the harvesting period. The people give thanks for God as he protects them from disease and any sort of bad events.
As to the Zone’s Administrator Gezu Assefa, the Festival has been celebrated for more than 540 years. and this year it was celebrated under the motto ‘Deraro for our peace, unity and prosperity’.
Language and cultural symposium, tournaments along with recognition ceremony were held as part of the major programs to inter-relate the culture and language of the zone and create unity among the people.
In the same way, ‘Huluqa’ which is the other major program of the Deraro festival was celebrated. It is said that Huluqa indicates a change or conversion to better place. It symbolizes letting anything evil incidents go off and move to a well, healthier place.
He noted: “There is celebration known as Huluqa that represents a transition to a bright future. During the festival, Elder people and religious leaders lead the way followed by the people to represent leaving behind previous year’s bad happenings”.
For a nation with many Nation and Nationalities and peoples like Ethiopia, though having various cultural and religious festivals might not be a big deal, preserving what it own and maintain the heritages is equally important.
It is clear that festivals bring people together and play a pivotal role in nation-building; bringing communities from different religious, economic and social background together. Protecting and maintaining such events apart from strengthening unity and social cohesion, it would yield substantial economic benefits.
It is for the same reason that President Sahle-Work called on citizens and all concerned bodies to give equal attention for protecting and maintaining nation’s heritages, adding that failure to protect the heritages might let the nation lose its place under UNESCO.
Nation’s image as well as the entire tourist flows will ever exist as long as the nation’s cultural, historical and religious heritages are protected, maintained and passed to the next generations accordingly. As per to the efforts to enlist those heritages under the UNESCO’s list, more attention should be given in protecting and maintaining both nations’ tangible and intangible heritages.
The Ethiopian Herald January 29/2020
BY BETELHEM BEDILU
