Students from different backgrounds got together to celebrate “new beginnings and hopes,” as Fiker Yigzaw, International Student Organization´s co-president described, during the Ethiopian New Year party. The festivity, held on Saturday 16 in Common Grounds, celebrated the Ethiopian New Year, also called “Enkutatash,” and had dancing, food, and a game as part of the party. Azeb Alemu, Yigzaw’s mother, shared what this event meant for her: “celebrating Enkutatash is a big thing for me… heart, happiness; it means lots of things. Especially in this school we [Ethiopian community members] have lots of sons and daughters. We are thankful to the University because it gives us a space to celebrate new year, a piece of home.”
To begin the event, ISO co-president Fiker Yigzaw, welcomed everyone and explained the itinerary planned for the evening starting with food. Yigzaw explained that they ordered the food from an Ethiopian restaurant called “Dama,” located in Washington DC. ISO members went to pick up the food and brought it back to Harrisonburg.
When it was time to eat, students made a long line to fill their plates with the Ethiopian food that had made a trip of over two hours by car. Students were complimentary of the food, with Ethiopian students Ruth Abera, junior, and Dibora Mekonnen, sophomore, naming it as “flavorful” and “immaculate” respectively. “My favorite part of this celebration is the people coming together, the food, and the dancing,” said Yigzaw. The music started, and students made a circle to dance traditional Ethiopian songs; The traditional Ethiopian costumes worn gave life to Common Grounds.
After dancing, they had planned to play the traditional game “Mehareben yayachu;” however, instead the night came to an end at around nine. “We decided to let them have fun dancing and did not do the game at the end,” said Sarah Projj, ISO president.
While the EMU held the celebration on September 16, the New Year 2016 was originally celebrated on September 12 in Ethiopia. Ethiopia uses its own calendar that is seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar because the Gregorian calendar was introduced to different countries when they were colonized. Ethiopia was successful in resisting and maintaining its original calendar that considers 7 BCE as the year Jesus was born. Though the original location was changed due to the weather and the decoration took longer than expected, the New Year 2016 was welcomed by Ethiopian students and anyone who wanted to submerge themself in the Ethiopian culture. James Madison University’s ISO, Eastern Mennonite University ISO, CAC, and CEI collaborated to make the event enjoyable for everyone who attended. Students can look forward to events like this and learn more about them from Events at EMU (https://emu.edu/events/).
