{"id":2448,"date":"2026-08-19T11:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/?p=2448"},"modified":"2026-08-19T11:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:53:11","slug":"how-the-ancient-festival-of-buhe-brings-light-and-community-to-rainy-season-ethiopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/how-the-ancient-festival-of-buhe-brings-light-and-community-to-rainy-season-ethiopia\/","title":{"rendered":"How the ancient festival of Buhe brings light and community to rainy-season Ethiopia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"4\"><em>Addis Ababa ( AMECO)<\/em>&#8211; <strong>Communities across Ethiopia have marked the annual festival of Buhe, an ancient cultural and religious celebration that signifies the gradual end of the heavy winter rains and the arrival of brighter weather.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">Celebrated every year on 13 Nehase (19 August), the festival holds deep spiritual resonance as the Feast of the Transfiguration (Debre Tabor), while serving as a vital bridge of social cohesion, hospitality, and traditional art across generations.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">The festivities are held with particular grandeur in the south Gondar zone adminstration seat, Debre Tabor. According to Alebel Demelash, head of the Debre Tabor town administration\u2019s culture, tourism, and sport department, Buhe stands out as one of the primary cultural milestones that bid farewell to the harsh <i data-path-to-node=\"6\" data-index-in-node=\"292\">Kiremt<\/i> (rainy season).<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">Centred around youth and community participation, the festival is defined by the traditional <i data-path-to-node=\"7\" data-index-in-node=\"93\">Hoya Hoye<\/i> custom. Groups of young boys roam from door to door playing drums and chanting rhythmic traditional verses to praise householders and announce the coming of light.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">In return for their songs, mothers and matriarchs present the children with specially baked round loaves of bread known as <i data-path-to-node=\"8\" data-index-in-node=\"123\">mulmul<\/i>. Each child in the family and extended network receives a loaf, which they share while gathering in the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\">Alongside the singing, young men perform the tradition of cracking woven leather whips (<i data-path-to-node=\"9\" data-index-in-node=\"88\">jiraf<\/i>). The loud, sharp cracks ringing through the streets are traditionally believed to drive away the dark spirits and gloom of winter while heralding the coming season of sunlight.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">At dusk, families and neighbours gather to light wooden torches (<i data-path-to-node=\"10\" data-index-in-node=\"65\">chibo<\/i>). Illuminating the streets, the lighting of the <i data-path-to-node=\"10\" data-index-in-node=\"119\">chibo<\/i> serves as the central visual symbol of the festival, marking the transition out of winter\u2019s darkness into the bright new year month of Meskerem.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">Local officials noted that ongoing initiatives are under way in Debre Tabor to preserve these authentic heritage practices and ensure their transmission to future generations without losing their intrinsic cultural value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Addis Ababa ( AMECO)&#8211; Communities across Ethiopia have marked the annual festival of Buhe, an ancient cultural and religious celebration that signifies the gradual end of the heavy winter rains and the arrival of brighter weather. Celebrated every year on 13 Nehase (19 August), the festival holds deep spiritual resonance as the Feast of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[97,88,1301],"class_list":["post-2448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2451,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions\/2451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}