Pounding the ground with their sticks in rhythms and singing Hoyahoye! ,in groups of 3 to 5, kids in rural and urban areas of Ethiopia move from house to house commemorating Buhe which also shows the apparent end of the rainy season and the coming of spring.
Buhe also known as the Festival of Debre Tabor or the Festival of Transfiguration is one of the nine outdoor religious and cultural celebrations marked between August and September in Ethiopia. This festival symbolizes the transfiguration of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor in Israel. The transfiguration was accompanied with thunderous voice from heaven in which God has spoken that Jesus is the Son God and that everyone should heed to him has been celebrated in Ethiopia for more than 1600 years.
Some try to mistakenly compare it with Halloween which is celebrated in the US but Buhe is strictly Ethiopian and incomparable with any other celebration across the Atlantic and is never celebrated anywhere in the world except Ethiopia.
The story goes that shepherds who were tending their sheep under Mount Tabor were watching the situation with wonders and were late to come home on time. Parents who were worried about their kids prepared smaller loaves of bread that they took for the kids who later on distributed the loaves among the poor in their communities as a gesture of compassion.
Buhe is also considered as a festival for kids who move in groups singing at each house they come across. In olden times and even at recent times, the kids are provided with loaves of bread which they collect and distribute among the poor at local churches. They make whips made from the trunks of trees and crack them in their villages in memory of the sound of thunder the shepherds at Mount Debre Tabor have heard.
The chorus of the Buhe song “Hoya-Hoye” is sung by the kids in group voices. They thank those who provided them with gifts with songs that are also occasionally incoherent because they insert names and add titles that they wish for the head of the family who listens to their songs as tradition requires.
Buhe is a memorable event for kids who form groups and sing together. It is considered as one of the most important childhood celebration that no kid wants to miss. However, I doubt if young persons will take time to orient their kids when they are married.
This festival is a typical blend of religious beliefs with cultural tradition showing the culture of sharing prevalent among the peoples of Ethiopia who are known for their generosity towards the needy. Buhe depicts heartfelt love, tolerance and generosity among community members and their commitment to social values of mutual concern for family including kids. It shows that community members recognize and care for their cultural and religious values.
The peoples and government of Ethiopia have excellent opportunity to make Buhe festival a center of tourist attraction and to register it as one of the intangible cultural heritages of mankind. It is very important to make feasibility research on the possibility of registering Buhe at UNESCO.
The festival is sometimes understood as if it is celebrated only in Amhara Regional State. I think this is wrong mainly because the celebration cuts across the faithful of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church among the nations and nationalities in Ethiopia.
Buhe also marks the gradual end of the rainy season in Ethiopia. Kids carry homemade torches that show the coming of bright spring in Ethiopia.
Buhe also marks the end of the Filseta fasting season dedicated to the glory of Virgin Mary. Despite the cultural background of Buhe, nowadays, money is being used as a replacement for gifts of mulmul— smaller loaves of bread— as it is practiced in original tradition.
Buhe is one of the most ancient religious celebrations in Ethiopia. It is a festival of hope and aspiration for the upcoming spring in which farmers hope to get better harvest.
Now let us look into why these cultural and religious festivals are important. In the first place, they show the age old cultural cohesion between the peoples of Ethiopia. All the religious festivals on the other hand declare peace and love not only among the members of a specific religion but also among the faithful from other religions.
All the religious festivals in the country are based on peace and harmony among the peoples of Ethiopia but some elements in the society who pause as religious zealots have earlier made futile attempts to use such occasions to incite religious conflicts. What has happened in Ethiopia Somali over the last year demonstrates how religion was used as a political scapegoat to sow extreme hatred among people who have lived and continue to live with respectful harmony and peace.
The National Peace and Dialogue Commission can organize a nationwide research program on a strategy of using cross cultural and religious values as a tool for promoting peace in Ethiopia. Unfortunately no meaningful research has been conducted on religious festivals as they are celebrated across all culture in the country.
Cultural and religious festivals like Buhe have managed to surpass the evolution of various changes and modifications in cultures and religious values due to rapid urbanization. Buhe as stated earlier can be exploited as a means of attracting tourists to the occasion without making any modifications. For instance, tourist can get exposed to the tradition of sting mulmul loaves of bread made of wheat or barley and can watch the demonstration on how to make the whips locally called Jiraff.
Buhe is not well known among tourists who come to Ethiopia. There is a greater emphasis on Meskel and Timket but I think Buhe needs to be introduced to tourists coming to Ethiopia as a means of expanding the centers of tourist attractions to our intangible cultural and religious heritage of Ethiopia.
Religious and cultural festivals like Buhe are not well documented. This is of critical importance because the coming generation needs to know the contents of these celebrations in their original forms. The country needs a catalogue of documented cultural religious festivals not only for promotion and marketing purposes but also as tools for learning for sociologists and anthropologists alike. It is also very interesting to note that Buhe is not celebrated in any other country as a major religious festival and this shows how religious life is deeply rooted in Ethiopia.
But again why did Ethiopia so far failed to use cultural and religious festivals and values to restore peace in the country. The author thinks that the government and the religious institutions themselves did not give enough attention to employing religious values to promote peace in the country. Secular government or private institutions look upon religious institutions to teach the public on peace and reconciliation but some of these religious organizations, particularly in the regions are tied down with their own interdenominational squabbling. They are busy trying to resolve their own problems.
This is a country in which religion and religious organizations have played a major role in promoting homegrown and church based education. The churches were providing moral education which helped to effectively promote peace and friendship among the youth in the country. This is one of the reasons why many youth of those days have grown up with full love for their country.
The problem with us is that children are not well heard in the family except for those who are good orientations on educating their children at home on the cultural and religious values of the country. Middle class and richer families will not allow their children with the wrong notion that their kids will learn how to beg for money.
Retaining religious festivals like Buhe, have among other things a greater importance because they show the nature of oral literature and how people use them to transmit timely messages into the public. It shows an aspect of voluntary social communication that is culturally acceptable and is cherished from generation to generation.
This home grown festival must be a means of entertainment not only for kids but for the entire population. Buhe indicates certain level of social optimism for better days ahead in terms of bumper harvest because it is observed at the last quarter of the rainy season in which the entire country is covered with lush green crops that ignite hope for better harvest.
Many young persons in towns across the country know very little about any of the cultural and religious festivals that are practiced in the country for thousands of years because they were not taught to appreciate them. They know a lot about father’s Day, Mother’s Day and Valentine Day and April the Fool because they take it as a sign of modernity denying due respect to their own cultural values. This is a wrong understanding and assumption that may show that every cultural value that comes from abroad is good putting the young generation into cultural xenophobia.
Unfortunately, we are already flooded with cultural values and traditions that are alien to Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Not only the government but civil society organization and professional associations are expected to play the role of custodianship for the multiple sets of cultural and traditional values among the ethnic groups in the country.
All told, Buhe shall remain as an important component of Ethiopia’s religious and cultural heritage to be transferred to the next generation of Ethiopians. This intangible cultural heritage must be introduced to tourists, researchers and casual visitors to Ethiopia.
BY SOLOMON DIBABA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 19 AUGUST 2023
