Today, Christian faithful in Ethiopia are celebrating Easter (Fasika in local language) through various spiritual and traditional activities as Easter in Ethiopia is observed following a fasting period that takes place for close to 60 days among followers of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido and Catholic churches.
Right on the eve of Easter, congregations dress up in white traditional clothes and gather in churches for a mass that will last for hours. As soon as the mass is over, families head to their respective homes and gather around to break fasting using traditional dishes predominantly beef, mutton, egg, dairy products and other related mealtimes.
The majority of the faithful help the needy while observing the day as it is their responsibility to be discharged as per the teachings of the religion. Yes, today is celebrating Easter. It is the day of abundant delicious meals and drinks for churchgoers to have on their respective tables after the great bent and fast.
This writer had a short stay with Deacon Kassa Belete to grasp a piece of information about Easter in particular and the social values of religious festivals in general.
He said that Ethiopia owns a number of extraordinary and well inspiring cultural and religious festivals that have been inscribed on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
According to Deacon Kassa, The Ethiopian Orthodox church is one of the original churches for Christianity and this celebration should be determinedly well-looked-after and seriously taken care of.
Easter or Fasika is a celebration bedecked with a number of preparations towards building up to a release of feasting for making fun. These jubilations highlight the wonderful diversity and vibrancy of Ethiopian culture.
As far as the religious values are concerned, Deacon Kassa said that supporting one another, exhibiting love and affection, providing people with forgiveness and the likes are underlined to bring about societal cohesion. True, social harmony is of paramount importance in consolidating the entrenched norms, cultures, values, and social solidarity—an everlasting asset passing down from generation to generation—in multinational countries like ours, he added.
According to Deacon Kassa, the shared community life and intermingling of cultures has been tainted by acts of individuals and groups running to amass undeserved gain at the expense of citizens merely via puffing misinformation and lies targeting at distancing between religious communities. Such a viable venue, the kind approach of congregations to the needy and others using Easter as an opportunity, has to be consolidated, he underlined.
He added that such a destructive move has to be broken well by reinvigorating firm relations, amicable approaches and strengthening the culture of helping one another like what is being done during holidays such as Easter. Yes, people are observed visiting relatives, neighbors as well as providing the needy with what they demand.
“We do have a very precious culture that needs to be well nurtured and consolidated as well as properly transcended to generations. Our culture of helping one another, consulting relatives and friends whenever we face trouble and stretching helping hands at dark times are expected to be cultivated and intensified,” he added.
Easter is a glorious and magnificent celebration acted and observed by the entire people especially, Christians who love such cultural and religious events. It is also a long awaited celebration as all Christian religion congregations have it after close to sixty day fasting, as to Deacon Kassa.
Another woman to whom The Ethiopian Herald talked along this line is Martha Gezahegn, third year Civics and Ethical education student at Kotebe Teacher University. She said that all faithful are expected to abide by the commandments of their religion and give respect to others as much as they can as Jesus Christ has been loving human beings when He was trekking on earth. Ethiopians are committed to bring about change in all aspects via developing the culture of cooperation, fraternity and amicable ties, she said.
According to Martha, citizens’ fraternity and mutual relationship has to be a culture and pass down to generations as it is indispensible and lucrative in making a difference in all aspects thereby building a peaceful, prosperous and comfortable nation fitting for all its citizens.
She said, “It is well recognized that all religions are equal as enshrined in the constitution and we all have to nurture our respective children keeping the long lasting culture of coexistence, amicable tie, thinking of one another all the time especially at bad times. This is really a golden manifestation of Ethiopians.”
Aselef Admasu is a mother of three living around Megenagna. This writer talked to her to comprehend her feeling about Easter and its values. She said, “Our relationship must not only be in the realms of festivals, holidays and times of better association, but it is also expected to be expanded in the realm of bad times, where we must use exchange and interaction to add depth and breadth to our ties. Only through these efforts we will be able to bring dynamism to our efforts to come up with real change in all circumstances in the country,” Aselef opined.
According to Aselef, Ethiopians must discuss what is necessary to correct wrong doings so far among the society, what needs to be done away with, as well as revising policies that are needed to be revised to bring further growth, peace and inclusive agreement and to provide every citizen with serenity, justice, equity against the unprejudiced treatment of citizens in their country. All of us must also be aware that these festivities and celebrations need to take place within the large context of the population and others have to draw important lessons from such an appealing cultural asset.
As learnt from Aselef, as healthy relations and respect one another requires constant dialog or close talks, Ethiopians must continue conducting dialogs between and among people aiming at strengthening cooperation within the society as we learnt the love and everlasting affection from Jesus Christ which has developed upon human beings.
She further elucidated that this Christian festival provides gut for forgiving and love of human beings, so does Ramadan of Muslims. Look! How mesmerizing and full of mercy these religious celebrations are! They are strong bonds to firmly tie faithful themselves and attracting cross-religion pattern.
Yared Getachew, Bekalcho Newspaper of EPA (Sidama Language) Editor-in-Chief- said people especially the faithful are expected to think of the poor around their resident and contribute what they can to helping the needy feel connected and develops a sense of belongingness.
As to him, Easter, which celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is one of the most longstanding holidays as far as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is concerned, and so is Fiche Chembelala among Sidama community.
Religion through unity and cooperation could be instrumental in realizing personal growth and collective development. It is well recognized that religion is a means for cooperation, sympathetic spirit, helping one another and living in harmony being abided by the commandments of God/Allah, he stated.
According to Yared, Easter is marked with splendid, and catchy events at home and visiting relatives, family members and the needy as much as possible is its peculiar manifestation.
“As to me, these days people are becoming greedy for various reasons perhaps, but supporting one another, sharing what we have with fellow citizens and reaching out to the unreached at bad times in particular is a sacred deed and must be reinvigorated as well as passed down to generations.”
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 24 APRIL 2022
