Yohanes Byassu, 8, helps his mother Tiruwork Abera by marking a cross of ash on her forehead during Meskel Festival at Lowry Park in Aurora on Saturday, September 28, 2019.

Thousands of Ethiopians were gathered on Addis Ababa's Meskel square Thursday (Sep. 26). The festival celebrates the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, according to the church beliefs, and its ...

Ethiopians are celebrating the annual Meskel festival, the first big festival of the Ethiopian religious year. According to Ethiopian Orthodox Christian tradition, the national holiday marks the ...

Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, celebrating the Meskel festival, came together in the capital, Addis Ababa, after most of the faithful skipped last year's festivities due to the pandemic. It is the ...

The shadow of war hung over Ethiopia's Meskel festival in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, with high security, low turnout and Orthodox Christian priests calling for peace and forgiveness in their sermons.

In a new photo series entitled “Meskel Flower: A Love Letter to Ethiopia,” Wolle contends with self-declaration of home and identity unfettered by miles of distance.

Meskel is a Geez word; which literally means Cross. The holiday is celebrated in commemoration with the discovery of the true cross of Jesus Christ by the Roman empress Helena (St. Helena).

Among Orthodox believers in Ethiopia and its neighbour Eritrea, Meskel commemorates the discovery by Saint Helena in Palestine in the fourth century of the “true cross” upon which Jesus Christ ...

The national feast of Demera is held at Meskel Square, a huge square in Addis Ababa, on September 26, the eve of Meskel, the official day of the Feast of the Finding of the True Cross.