Ethiopia: Over 100 000 Ethiopians celebrate new millennium

(SomaliNet) More than 100 000 Ethiopian Orthodox Christians took part in a procession in Addis Ababa for the first major religious festival of the country\'s third millennium.

Ethiopia follows a unique version of the Julian and marked a new millennium on September 12, seven years after the rest of the world.

Ethiopians on Thursday converged on Meskel square in the capital\'s centre, in larger numbers than often before during a ceremony where they sing hymns and beat drums to commemorate what the faithful regard as the finding of cross on which Jesus was crucified.

According to Ethiopian Christian tradition, Meskel - Amharic for cross - the festival celebrates the finding of the \"true cross\" by Saint Helena in Jerusalem in the 4th century AD.
She is believed to have found the hiding place where three crosses used during Jesus\' crucifixion and identified the holy one by a miracle.

The story has it that St Helena gave pieces of the cross to all Orthodox churches and Ethiopia\'s church claims to still hold its own piece in a remote monastery.-AFP