Every community possesses distinctive social, cultural and traditional values. These values, sometimes, will have universal values and acceptance as their core ideas would have binding perceptual patterns and represent a large extent of groups; apart from their culture-specific values for that specific group.
The Sidama People New Year festival, which is celebrated among the people of Sidama is one among the others in this regard. The holiday aside from its cultural values, it serves as a means to propagate peace and love, integrity and solidarity as well as environmental preservation and development.
Recently, the, Sidama People New Year festival was organized here in Addis Ababa.
Speaking on the occasion Adanech Abeiebe, Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa City Administration said that Ethiopia has numerous breathtaking historical, cultural and traditional values. These national cultural values should be preserved and used for the tourism sector to gain significant economic value from the sector. “Efforts will also be made to make Addis Ababa the cultural center of Ethiopia.”
Fichee Chamballa though is Sidama’s People New Year festival; it encompasses a number of principles, such as good governance, equality, togetherness, peace, love, solidarity, respect and other related assets, that are basic for human beings and nature.
Therefore, the culture should not be a holiday that would be celebrated only once as a festival, but it is also a valuable gift presented by the people of Sidama to the Ethiopian people and to global communities. So, it should be preserved well and pass to the next generation accordingly, she added.
The City administration has prepared plot of land in Addis Ababa that will be used to construct Sidam Cultural center to make sure that the capital is the city of all Ethiopian nations, nationalities and peoples,
Dr. Hirut Kassaw, Minister of Culture and Tourism, in her message said that the Sidama Nation’s New Year celebration should be passed on to the next generation in a way that preserves its cultural content and historical significance.
Sidama State Chief Desta Ledamo, on his part, thanked the Addis Ababa City Administration for supporting the Fiche-Chambelala Festival in the city.
The festival was celebrated with a theme ‘Fiche-Chambelala is a symbol of peace, respect, love, solidarity, tolerance and reconciliation’, and it was marked in the presence of high government officials, representatives from Sidama State and guests.
Sidama’s New Year festival was inscribed in UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015.
BY STAFF REPORTER
The Ethiopian Herald May 18/2021
