Meskel

The twilight skies above towns across the nation blacken with smoke from damera (bonfires), while millions of cross-shaped yellow Meskel daisies, pinned to clothes and flags, dance through celebratory crowds. This sixteen-hundred-year-old holiday commemorates the finding of the True Cross, upon which Jesus met his end. According to the Ethopian Orthodox Church, the Christian Roman Empress Helena discovered the holy object when smoke wafting from the incense she was burning guided her to its resting place. A piece of the cross is said to be buried under the mountain monastery of Gishen Mariam in Ethopia.