Teketsel Tsige
Teketsel Tsige means “be crowned by flower.” Emperor Gebre Meskel started this feast. The base of this feast is proven in the Book of Leviticus, which states the order of God for the Israelis to celebrate the atonement feast on the tenth month. (Levictus 23:25)
The tenth month (Meskerem) is the time that Israelis used for repentance and fast. Records show that onwards, through the Pentateuch law , Ethiopians inherited the celebration of this feast during Emperor Mesekel. By then, it was celebrated on Mesekerem 25.
Later on, on the tenth century, the cross of Lord Jesus Christ came to Ethiopia by the Emperor on Mesekerem 10. And thus, the feast changed in to the commemoration named as “Teketsel Tsige and Aste Mesekel” on the tenth day of Meskerem.
The great feast of “Teketsel Tsige” has been celebrated until the end of Emperor Haile Selassies’s Empire. But at the reign of Dereg, the feast seized to be celebrated till the year 1983 E.C. After the fall of the Dereg Regime, it might not have been commemorated in the palace, but was celebrated in the Menbere Tsebaot Holy Trinity Cathedral, in front of the Patriarch up to present day.
May God’s benevolence be with us, Amen!