Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians celebrated the annual Irreecha seasonal festival Saturday amid ongoing conflict in parts of the country.
Irreecha, the ‘thanksgiving festival,’ is celebrated by the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, as participants from all over the country flock to the capital, Addis Ababa.
The participants, wearing colorful Oromo traditional attire, danced in the streets as they chanted cultural songs across parts of Addis Ababa. Many businesses were busy as attendees, estimated to be in the millions, came for the annual festive day.
Ethiopian federal police said in a statement that “millions of people” attended the celebrations in the capital.
Meskel Square was closed to vehicles and security was tight. The city’s police set up checkpoints starting Friday evening.
After holding green grass and flowers, symbolizing hope and prosperity, participants conducted the Irreecha ceremony and held several Oromo cultural events chanting with attractive and diversified dance moves.
“On this day we thank God as we survived the heavy rainy reason and saw the beautiful sky of September,” Gutu Merga, a resident of Addis Ababa, said, referring to the current Ethiopia calendar year 2017, which Irreecha coincides with. The Ethiopian calendar runs several years behind the Gregorian calendar most other countries follow.
“During Irreecha we pray to our almighty God, and we also offer our thanking… holding wet grass and flower.”
Gifti Birhanu, a resident of Addis Ababa, said, “Irreecha is my identity, I cannot separate my ethnicity from my nationality.”
“It is our beauty and now many other ethnic groups are taking part in it, I am happy,” she said.
‘It brings people together’
Many participants traveled from other towns in Ethiopia to participate in the festival. Wendyifraw Ketema, a resident of Arba Minch, was one of them.
“We have been taking part as a group for [the] third time now, we have [the] same ceremony in Gamogofa zone like Meskel, it brings people together,” he said. “Irreecha is bringing up many participants at one spot, so it is good for discovering one’s culture.”
In a message posted on Facebook, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, an Oromo himself, said Irreecha is an emblem of peace, unity and brotherhood among people.
Police in Addis Ababa announced that Saturday’s ceremony concluded without any security issues and thanked participants and the city’s dwellers for their cooperation.
Organizers said they expect millions more to flock to the traditional hosting site of Bishoftu, a town some 42 kilometers east of the capital, to attend the Irreecha festival Sunday.
Eight years ago, the festival in Bishoftu turned deadly as participants clashed with police who used tear gas and warning shots to manage the crowd, which triggered a stampede. Local officials said 52 people were killed, while witness accounts put the death toll at nearly double that. Activists are calling for a memorial to be established for the victims of the incident.
Celebration despite conflict
This year’s Irreecha festival is being celebrated against the backdrop of continued conflict in the country, including in parts of Oromia and the Amhara regions.
In the last week, Ethiopia’s army said it has intensified military operations against ethnic Amhara Fano rebel forces, a conflict that has been ongoing for more than a year.
The conflict in the Oromia region has been active much longer, where the Oromo Liberation Army, a splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, is fighting government forces.
The OLA’s grievances are rooted in alleged marginalization of the Oromo people and neglect by the federal government.
Peace talks between Ethiopia’s federal government and the OLA last year on Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar failed to materialize.
Rights groups reported human rights violations in Ethiopia’s Oromia and Amhara regions.
Participants at Saturday’s Irreecha festival chanted for peace — to “make our country peaceful” — as they splashed water with grass and flowers, one of the festival’s signature rituals.
Eskinder Firew contributed to this story. This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Service.