We should nurture our invaluable cultural heritages

BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW

When we think of New Year, materialists wish to make everything new but our capacity could not allow us to alter all the property at hand. One thing is easy and feasible for us –develop positive thinking and be optimistic about everything. Time may come and go following natural law and order. New things are always created at times while human beings struggle against nature. Time is a tool to change the living world for those who use it properly.

Meskerem 1 (September 11), is known as the beginning of New Year for Ethiopia. Before and after the Ethiopian New Year celebration which is dissimilar from the Gregorian calendar, some nations and nationalities and people of this country declare their own new year as per the culture inherited from their ancestors. This and other unique features make Ethiopia unique from the rest of the world.

Maskel, the finding of the true cross, is also another festival which celebrates every year to commemorate the success of the pious queen Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine I of Rome, in finding the holy cross up on which Christ was crucified. This festival which is never  observed elsewhere in the world increases tourist’s inflow to Ethiopia. It also adds new spirit on Ethiopians to be motivated, forgetting the outmoded thinking.

The Irreecha festival is also an annual thanksgiving event celebrated by ethnic Oromo’s to mark the end of the rainy season and the start of spring. While Irreecha was originally celebrated exclusively by ethnic Oromos in recent years, a growing number of non-Oromo Ethiopians are also celebrating the popular festival. Irreecha festival symbolizes unity, love, brotherhood, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Ethiopia, a mosaic of culture, has many features for anyone interested to learn from. So far, there is no culture that creates a rift among the people. It would rather advocate love, unity and living in harmony. If the country we live in is full, by its natural resources, cultural heritages and history or you name it, where does the source of differences come from?

Now is the time we Ethiopians stand and ask ourselves one important question. Why we (Ethiopians) who are rich in such religious and cultural rituals fail to make use of them to narrow our point of differences. Indeed, we understand that some greedy foreign countries

 or organizations try to scramble the untapped resources of the country through provoking conflict among nations and nationalities. This is a very factor that makes the country restless to think and perform the way it takes prosperity.

The upcoming flag and nations and nationalities days can also magnify the concept of unity in diversity. These two special days also promote tolerance and unity of the people through intertwining and tidying them up as one entity even if they are coming from different backgrounds.

As it is clearly stipulated in our legend or written history documents, Ethiopia wins enemies at times when they are standing in harmony putting aside points of dissimilarity. If we go up against the former, the only option we have is, to agree with our enemies and fall in their trap so as to cooperate or assist them to discharge their evil agenda on Ethiopia. If they are successful in that, we will not have – a country called Ethiopia – a mother of all nations, nationalities and peoples who are proud of their history, rituals and unique culture.

In this New Year, every one of us should come up with a new outlook which ameliorates the image of Ethiopia

 contributing our share through working day and night. We have to have a kindred soul. War could never build a nation, it would rather cause death and obliterate countries’ infrastructure which was built with huge expenses. War also takes the country to critical situations where it couldn’t revive from economic recession. Unless we learn from the previous experience, the ongoing war will not make the two sides a winner.

If we understand the trap of our enemies and come to negotiations, the wishful thinking of our enemies and connivance will be sterile. In the New Year, we need to come up together putting aside differences (time bomb of our enemies) that make us weaken and alienated.

Wake up Ethiopians and be wise to know and expose the hidden agenda of our enemies who are digging pitfalls. Be alert! The New Year gives us another opportunity to sustain Ethiopia through coming up with new perspectives that expose those who cooperate with our enemies.

 Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald

The Ethiopian Herald October 1/2022

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