It was in July 2015, the time when the national media was engulfed by the hullabaloo over the coming of the Man in the White house to Ethiopia.- The first sitting US President to visit Ethiopia. I was surfing the Internet, to update myself on the current affairs. A news title suddenly caught my eyes. It says Ethiopian Businessman Rejects Invitation to Meet Obama.
I read the news in detail. It was about the iconic Ethiopian who is known by many as the father of Ethiopian advertising industry. Wubshet Workalemahu received invitations from the Embassy of the United States in Addis Ababa and the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet President Barack Obama at the day of his arrival but since he planned to attend the annual religious celebration of the St. Gabriel at Kulubi a town near to Dire-Dawa he rejected the invitation. “I have to go to Kulubi once a year to pay my respect to the Arch Angel Gabriel. I do so because he is the boss of my body and soul,” he told journalists.
Webshet is not alone .Rather he is just one of the more than hundred thousand ardent loyal pilgrims of kulubi, who enabled the site earn the reputation as one of the most popular pilgrimage[religious journey] site in Ethiopia.
Pilgrimage is a common custom found in almost every society in Ethiopia. Most pilgrimage centers are either Christian or Muslim. Christian pilgrimage sites are centered in
churches, and pilgrimage is conducted annually on a specific holiday according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) calendar.
The strength of “spiritual magnetism” of pilgrimage sites varies, and there are some, like St. Gabriel Church of Qulubi, St. Giyorgis Churches of Lalibela, Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum , St. Mary Monastery of Gishen, and Debre Damo Monastery, that attract thousands of pilgrims from all over the country, while ceremonies of other churches are attended only by local residents.
On the other hand, Muslim pilgrimage centers are generally saintly shrines or places related to saintly persons. The most prominent Muslim pilgrimage centers in Ethiopia include Al-Negashi Mosque (site of the first Muslim settlement in the world) in Tigrai, Dirre Shaykh Husayn (Bale, southeast Ethiopia), where the shrine of the thirteenth-century Muslim saintly person Shaykh Nur Husayn is located ;and the shrines of saintly persons like the Tijani religious leader Al-Faki Ahmad Umar at Ya’a (western Ethiopia) .
Pilgrimage sites in Ethiopia are free of language and ethnic barriers. As meeting places for people coming from various localities and ethnic groups, they are considered as typical places where boundaries, ethnic, political, or religious differences, may be transcended. It is not rare to find Muslims at a Christian pilgrimage site, and vice versa. Although the kulubi festival is an orthodox Christian ones, devotees and pilgrims to Kulubi consists of people from other religions and faiths.
And moreover, the improved accessibility to pilgrimage sites, often located in remote areas, due to the current upgrading of road transportation, has brought about a large turnout of “pilgrims,” with or without pious motivation. These include people of the “other” religion, who may partake in the pilgrimage simply to enjoy, socialize or even just watch the festivity.
In particular, a group of Muslim shrines, belonging to the “Faraqasa connection” should be mentioned here. The distinctive feature of the shrines is that they are pilgrimage centers for both Muslims and Christians. Muslim and Christian pilgrims take part in the same rituals and are not treated differently by the guardians of the shrines. Religious coexistence is a salient feature of the pilgrimage to Faraqasa, and the shrines of the “Faraqasa connection,”
This is in spite of the fact that the founder, Sitti Mumina and her successors were and are Muslims.The sites are not regarded as sacred places exclusively for Muslims.
Most of the devout Kulubi pilgrims assert that if you have deep faith and devout to St Gabriel, then whatever you vowed to Gabriel ,you will surely get it. So Pilgrims walk to the Kulubi to make a vow, to ask St Gabriel favors like better health, living conditions, baby or marriage and so on. In many cases to give thanks for favors granted by awarding the kulubi church with gifts like money, and various gifts.
Some pilgrims carry heavy rocks on their backs, particularly for the last few kilometers uphill to the Church. Babies born through Gabriel’s intercession are brought to the front of the Church for baptism. Reports claim that as many as 1,000 babies may be christened, most of them named after Saint Gabriel.
Kulubi is a small town in Misraq Hararghe Zone of the Oromia state, lying some 68 kms south of Dire Dawa, and 464km from Addis. Kulubi can be accessed from Addis by air and vehicle, take the plane from Addis to Dire-Dawa and then finish the remaining journey by car. Kulubi St Gabriel Church is situated on a hilltop. The present church was erected in 1962 by Emperor Haile Selassie, replacing the one his father Ras Makonnen had erected to celebrate the Ethiopian victory in the Battle of Adwa.
The festival of Kulubi occurs twice a year. The 28th of December and 26th of July are dedicated to the annual and colorful celebration of the Saint Gebriel . Even though the two days are celebrated in all Ethiopian Orthodox churches around the world, the intensity and the size of the congregation would not come anywhere near to that of Kulubi Gebriel Church.
On the Ethiopian calendar, the two days fall on 19th of December and 19th of July respectively. St. Gabriel’s feast day is on the 19th of each month. So the day before yesterday, last Friday was the second and the last Kulubi festival of the Ethiopian year,2011.and I would bet with all my money in my account that Webshet was there among the jubilant Kulubi pilgrims chanting and ululating in praise of the Arch angel Gabriel.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 28 July 2019
BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
