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Set of 2 Bags

$30.00

The land is everywhere decked with a kaleidoscope of blossoms filling the air with their enchanting fragrances of which the yellow daisy or Meskel Flower is the most visible and omnipresent. There is also a Meskel bird – the usually unremarkable gray fire-finch that grows special red and yellow plumage for the season. All this comes together in the feast of Meskel wherein culture and nature, history and the new year combine in a celebration that is unique to Ethiopia although its theme is common to all Christendom. The Meskel Festival commemorates the finding by Queen Helen, mother of the first Roman Christian Emperor Constantine – of the wooden cross on which Jesus was crucified. When Queen Helen started to look for the cross she had sticks gathered, lighting it with fire and pouring much incense on the fire. When the smoke rose to the sky and settled on the spot where the Cross was buried, she ordered workmen to dig and recovered the Cross. That is what the Demera, – the public bonfire of the Ethiopian Meskel festival shown on this bag design – recalls.
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