Mahilete Tsige

Although this this prayer can be prayed at any time, it is specifically used in the church service during the during this season of flight, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church offers special hymns, the so called Mahilete Tsige (The Hymn of the Flower) and Seqoqawe Dingil (The Lamentation of the Virgin) along with the hymn of St Yared (Digua). These strophes of hymns composed in memory of the hardship of the Holy Family comparing Jesus and His Mother Mary by fruit and flower accompanied with many historical and religious facts as the Prophet Isaiah has compared Jesus by fruit and His Mother Mary by flower as stated: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” (Isaiah 11:1).

During this time, the Ethiopian faithful devotes in praying, fasting and other generous activities in memory of the flight of the Holy Family and their hardship in the wilderness of Egypt. The fasting is performed on one’s free will for it is out of the seven official fasting periods for abundant blessings one expects from God through the intercession of St. Mary.
On Sundays and other holidays, the clergy, often joined by a large number of people, gather the whole night for the divine office and sung up to the time of Mass. After the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, the believers especially in rural areas prepared a banquet (wine and food) in every Sundays of Zemene Tsigie in the name of St Mary and celebrate the season in such charitable activities.

The season which starts on the 26th of the first month of the Ethiopian calendar, the month of Meskerem (or October 6th in the other years and October 7th in the leap year) and stays for 40 days is a season assigned for the commemoration of the migration of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary His mother, the old Joseph and Salome. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church liturgical calendar, the season is known by the name “Season of Flower” (ዘመነ ጽጌ).

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