What is the finding of True Cross Ethiopian?
Meskel (Finding of the True Cross), is the celebration of the finding of remnants of the actual cross on which Jesus was crucified. The word “meskel” means “cross” in Amharic. According to Christian tradition, St. Eleni (Empress Helena) discovered the hiding place of three crosses used at the crucifixion of Jesus.
The church tradition also records that the then Patriarch of Alexandria gave Ethiopian Emperor Dawit half of the cross in return for protecting Coptic Christians. A fragment of the cross is believed to be held in Ethiopia's Gishen Mariam monastery, about 100 km ( miles) north of the capital.
In Ethiopian tradition the cross is the sacred matrix that encompasses the life of the world in both its macrocosmic and microcosmic dimensions; and it is the social and cultural nexus through which and with which people interact in order to shape and express personal and communal identities and hopes.
Meskel is a festival in celebration of Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, finding the true cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Mirrored in many ways by Ash Wednesday in the west, the festival competes for top billing and is considered the most important festival for the laity and ordained alike.
Legend relates that the True Cross was found by St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 326. The earliest historical reference to veneration of the True Cross occurs in the mid-4th century.
Ethiopian crosses are almost always made from elaborate latticework, the intertwined lattice represents everlasting life. No two crosses are exactly identical in style, the artisans who make them being allowed the freedom to exercise a measure of individual taste and creativity in their choice of shape and pattern.
Additionally, unlike many other Christians, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church believes that Jesus Christ has one nature that is solely divine, instead of two that are both divine and human.
Ethiopia is mentioned variously in every major division of the Hebrew Bible and used interchangeably with Cush,13 and it was later identified with Nubia and Aksum.
Ethiopian Crosses
Christianity most likely arrived in Ethiopia in the first century. The conversion of King Ezana in 330 c.e. led to its official acceptance and the minting of coins bearing one of the earliest uses of the cross as a Christian symbol.
An elegant 3 inch brass Ankh, handmade in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The ankh is an ancient symbol of life. This 3 inch brass ankh is handcrafted in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
What is the name of the Ethiopian Cross?
The Lalibela Cross is a large, elaborately decorated processional cross variation of the Ethiopian-Eritrean cross, considered one of Ethiopian most precious religious and historical heirlooms.
"Ethiopian" was a Greek term for black-skinned peoples generally, often applied to Kush (which was well known to the Hebrews and often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible). The eunuch was not from the land today known as Ethiopia, which corresponds to the ancient Kingdom of Aksum, which conquered Kush in the fourth century.

Meskel festival is known as Feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross in Ethiopian Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant churches.
Ethiopians have celebrated the annual festival of the Meskel (which means “cross” in Amharic), marking the finding of the “true cross” on which Jesus Christ was supposedly crucified. The festival is one of the major religious celebrations of the Orthodox Church in the Horn of Africa country.
Timkat celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. This festival is best known for its ritual reenactment of baptism (similar to such reenactments performed by numerous Christian the Holy Land when they visit the Jordan).
In the year 629 A.D., the Cross was recovered and brought back to Jerusalem by Emperor Heraclius of Constantinople. The relic of the True Cross was then restored to its place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Created by Africans long ago, the ankh is said to be the first--or original--cross. The ankh is often shown in the hands of important Egyptian figures, such as pharaohs and kings, preserving their immortality.
The cross has been widely recognized as a symbol of Christianity from an early period. However, the use of the cross as a religious symbol predates Christianity; in the ancient times it was a pagan religious symbol throughout Europe and western Asia.
Some historians have suggested anti-Catholic sentiment in the ranks of the LDS Church in the early 20th century eventually led to a turning away from the cross as a beloved symbol, since it is ubiquitous in the Catholic faith.
“Coptic Pendant Crosses” have been worn by Ethiopians, like other Christians, as a visual symbol of their faith for over 1,600 years.
What metal are Ethiopian crosses made of?
One of the first discoveries during this testing was that the cross is made of an alloy of silver, copper, and zinc– not iron, as was listed in the museum records.
Eyesus (Ge'ez: ኢየሱስ ) is an Ethiopian name meaning Joshua. It can also mean Yasu (or Yashu), Yesu, or Jesus.
The adoption of Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the fourth-century reign of the Aksumite emperor Ezana. Aksum's geographic location, at the southernmost edge of the Hellenized Near East, was critical to its conversion and development.
The Ethiopian Bible is the oldest and most complete bible on earth. Written in Ge'ez an ancient dead language of Ethiopia it's nearly 800 years older than the King James Version and contains over 100 books compared to 66 of the Protestant Bible.
Judaism was practiced in Ethiopia long before Christianity arrived and the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible contains numerous Jewish Aramaic words. The Old Testament in Ethiopia may be a translation of the Hebrew with possible assistance from Jews.
“According to Ethiopian tradition, Christianity first came to the Aksum Empire in the fourth century A.D. when a Greek-speaking missionary named Frumentius converted King Ezana.
Ethiopian Jews allegedly descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel. And Rastafarians regard Ethiopia as their homeland. Ethiopia is also a holy land to paleontologists and evolutionary biologists.
The slanted line reminds us of the two thieves on both sides of the cross. One of them to the right of Christ ascended to Heaven, while the other one sank to Hell. Thus bottom bar of the cross is like the scale of justice and its points show the way to the Hell and Heaven.
"Genetic continuity between ancient and modern Egyptians cannot be ruled out despite this more recent sub-Saharan African influx, while continuity with modern Ethiopians is not supported".
This use of the ankh as a symbol of Christ's promise of everlasting life through belief in his sacrifice and resurrection is most probably the origin of the Christian use of the cross as a symbol of faith today. The early Christians of Rome and elsewhere used the fertility symbol of the fish as a sign of their faith.
What god made the ankh?
Ankh, It is formed, starting from the top, by a circle, symbol of that which has no beginning and no end, and which represents the celestial world, the spirit of Ra, the Sun God for the ancient Egyptians; this circle also serves as the handle of the key, from where it is carried by the gods who carry it.
The largest Crucifix is in Bardstown, KY, at 60 feet high. The largest Christian cross in the world stands at 492 feet (150m), located in the Valley of the Fallen, Spain.
The coptic cross is said to be a variation on the Egyptian hieroglyph Ankh, meaning life. The circle represents the eternal love of God or Christ's halo and resurrection. Coptic crosses are rarely seen depicting the crucified body of Christ.
A three-barred cross in which the short top bar represents the inscription over Jesus' head, and the lowest (usually slanting) short bar, placed near the foot, represents his footrest (in Latin, suppedaneum).
Cush, Cushitic and Cushi
In the Major Prophets, the terms used to refer to Africa and Africans appear more than 180 times. Cush appears also as a geographical location.
Many Ethiopian Jews also immigrated to Israel to flee from the civil war, famine during and after the war, as well as hostility toward Ethiopian Jews.
Book of Numbers 12:1 states that Moses was criticized by his older siblings for having married a "Cushite woman", Aethiopissa in the Latin Vulgate Bible version. One interpretation of this verse is that Moses' wife Zipporah, daughter of Reuel/Jethro from Midian, was black.
Since the 1940 Seventh Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion, major mainline Protestant denominations shifted their doctrine to accepting contraception.
While demand for Christmas Eve celebrations is so high that some churches hold as many as five or six different services on the 24th of December, most Protestant churches are closed on the actual religious holiday.
Most Protestant traditions call the ritual communion, rather than the Eucharist. There are major differences between the Protestant practice of communion and the Eucharist. Most Protestant traditions about communion do not rely on the power of a priest to transform the bread into the body of Christ.
Why is Ethiopian Easter different?
Because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church view the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as far more significant than His birth, Fasika is the most important Christian festival, hence it is normally one week longer than Western celebrations.
Furthermore, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church upholds Sabbatarianism, observing the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday), in addition to the Lord's Day (Sunday), although more emphasis, because of the Resurrection of Christ, is laid upon Sunday.
Known to most in the West as the home of Emperor Haile Selassie, the so-called Lion of Judah. Ethiopians are proud of their beautiful and varied country because they alone among African nations were never colonized. Just that fact gives Ethiopia something of a different feel than other places in Africa.
Ethiopia (and especially the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) celebrates Christmas on January 7th, not December 25th. The Ethiopian Calendar has different months - and Christmas in on the 29th of Tahsas. Many other orthodox churches around the world also celebrate Christmas on the 7th January.
Many Orthodox Christians annually celebrate Christmas Day on or near January 7 to remember Jesus Christ's birth, described in the Christian Bible. This date works to the Julian calendar that pre-dates the Gregorian calendar, which is commonly observed.
Gena (Amharic: ገና) or qarsa (ቃርሳ) is a traditional field hockey game popular in the Ethiopian highlands. It is a game played in the space between villages but with no defined boundaries.
By interviewing many locals, and with the assistance of St. Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, she discovered the spot and found the True Cross which had been previously hidden by the Jews. Three crosses were found—but they were uncertain as to which of them was the True Cross.
The True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was said to have been crucified, particularly as an object of religious veneration.
Today there are even more “true cross” fragments on display around the world: on Mount Athos, in Rome, in Brussels, in Venice, in Ghent, in Paris, in Spain, in Serbia – and even in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, where a fragment of the true cross came along as part of the family chapel imported there and rebuilt by Theodore ...
This form of Coptic cross is widely used in the Coptic church and the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches, and so this form of the cross may also be called the "Ethiopian cross" or "Axum cross".
Where is Jesus crown of thorns kept?
Prior to the Seventh Crusade, Louis IX of France bought from Baldwin II of Constantinople what was venerated as Jesus' Crown of Thorns. It is kept in Paris to this day, in the Louvre Museum.
- 2.1 Shroud of Turin.
- 2.2 Sudarium of Oviedo.
- 2.3 Image of Edessa.
- 2.4 Veil of Veronica. 2.4.1 Rome. 2.4.2 Alicante. 2.4.3 Siena. 2.4.4 Manoppello. 2.4.5 Gallery.
The Garden Tomb is a rock-cut tomb in Jerusalem, which was unearthed in 1867 and is considered by some Protestants to be the tomb of Jesus. The tomb has been dated by Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay to the 8th–7th centuries BC.
The usage of the Cross and the Crucifix came from the Roman Emperor, Constantine, who was a pagan and claimed to have converted to Christianity. Thus began the introduction of The Trinity and The Cross into Christianity. Both of which, the Romans and Greeks copied from the ancient Egyptians, not from Scripture.
He may have stood about 5-ft.-5-in. (166 cm) tall, the average man's height at the time.
For a few centuries, the emblem of Christ was a headless T-shaped Tau cross rather than a Latin cross. Elworthy considered this to originate from Pagan Druids who made Tau crosses of oak trees stripped of their branches, with two large limbs fastened at the top to represent a man's arm; this was Thau, or god.
Jesus' name in Hebrew was “Yeshua” which translates to English as Joshua.
The Gero Cross or Gero Crucifix (German: Gero-Kreuz), of around 965–970, is the oldest large sculpture of the crucified Christ north of the Alps, and has always been displayed in Cologne Cathedral in Germany.
Ethiopia is mentioned variously in every major division of the Hebrew Bible and used interchangeably with Cush,13 and it was later identified with Nubia and Aksum.