Meskal (also spelled Meskel) is one of Ethiopia's most spectacular festivals, a two-day celebration at the end of September marking the Finding of the True Cross. The date coincides with the end of the rainy season, when the hillsides turn yellow with meskal daisies.
The heart of the celebration is the Demera, a massive bonfire built in a cone shape and topped with a cross decorated with flowers. In Addis Ababa, the main Demera is lit in Meskel Square before enormous crowds, but the festival is observed in every town and village across the country. Priests in full ceremonial regalia lead processions around the pyre, chanting and swinging incense, before the fire is set. The direction in which the bonfire falls is believed to foretell the year ahead.
The following morning, people mark their foreheads with the charcoal ash in the sign of the cross. The festival has been celebrated continuously since the fourth century and is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. If you are in Ethiopia in late September, Meskal is worth planning around -- the combination of religious ceremony, communal energy, and sheer visual spectacle is unlike anything else on the continent.