(Sept 11, 2012, Washington post)--They arrived by foot and taxi, Metro and minivan, tens of thousands of
Ethiopian Americans gathering beneath the Washington Monument, some
waving their country’s flag, others dressed in the traditional
gauzy-white clothing of their homeland. Tourists wandered by and
wondered what was happening. World Cup? Political demonstration?
In what organizers called one of the region’s largest gatherings of
Ethiopians, thousands of people came from Virginia, Maryland, the
District and several other East Coast areas Sunday evening to celebrate a
holiday that falls on Sept. 11: the Ethiopian New Year.
“Happy 2005!” Asratie Asfaw Teferra, 49, said proudly — the ancient African calendar still used in Ethiopia being seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar. In addition to the new year, the festival commemorates the end of the country’s long rainy season, when the sun comes out and the fields fill with yellow daisies.
In the United States, there is neither a rainy season nor flower-filled fields — and Tuesday’s date has inauspicious connotations. But that hasn’t quelled the desire of Ethiopian Americans to be embraced by their adopted land. They want to be an ethnic group that matters. They want to belong. And that means they want a holiday.
“We envision it like Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day and the Chinese New Year,” said Teferra as he helped unload a station wagon filled with injera, the staple bread of Ethiopia. “Maybe in the past we were an insular culture. But now we run businesses and restaurants, we vote, we’re citizens. We’re part of the cultural tapestry of America.” Read more from Washington Post »
Related topics:
'Enkutatash' እንቁጣጣሽ (Ethiopian New Year)
Celebrating the Ethiopian New Year
“Happy 2005!” Asratie Asfaw Teferra, 49, said proudly — the ancient African calendar still used in Ethiopia being seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar. In addition to the new year, the festival commemorates the end of the country’s long rainy season, when the sun comes out and the fields fill with yellow daisies.
In the United States, there is neither a rainy season nor flower-filled fields — and Tuesday’s date has inauspicious connotations. But that hasn’t quelled the desire of Ethiopian Americans to be embraced by their adopted land. They want to be an ethnic group that matters. They want to belong. And that means they want a holiday.
“We envision it like Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day and the Chinese New Year,” said Teferra as he helped unload a station wagon filled with injera, the staple bread of Ethiopia. “Maybe in the past we were an insular culture. But now we run businesses and restaurants, we vote, we’re citizens. We’re part of the cultural tapestry of America.” Read more from Washington Post »
Related topics:
'Enkutatash' እንቁጣጣሽ (Ethiopian New Year)
Celebrating the Ethiopian New Year
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