Meskel Celebration (2023)
The largest gathering of Africans is not at the cookout after church, it’s the cookout AT church…and they’re cooking for hundreds in celebration of the Ethiopian holiday called Meskel, translated from Amharic to English as ‘Cross’. Ethiopian Orthodox churches from across Southern California gather in San Diego to celebrate the Roman Empress Helena’s discovery of the “True Cross” of Jesus Christ in the 4th century.
The day begins with vendors fuming with scents of lamb and chicken stews. Ethiopian food consists of dishes that are eaten with a thin flat bread called ‘injera’ and is eaten by hand, engulfing them in the stews. Large canopies are packed with people listening to the prayers that are being said aloud by priests and deacons dressed in detailed seams and vibrant colors.
As the sun begins to set, prayers turn into the church choir singing and dancing culminating to a mob of attendees, and church leaders beating drums. They walk in the direction where the grass and sand meet, carrying torches ready to light the tall gathering of sticks that have been bunched together. Shouts of hymns and the beating of drums get louder as the sticks are sent ablaze. The bonfire stretching high provides a warmth felt throughout the crowd and brings more heat to the commotion.
A rainbow runs through the sky as the final encore leaving people to linger on the field in typical Ethiopian fashion, with no aim of what hour to go home.