Happy New Year

Of all the holidays that Ethiopia knows, the New Year is the most beloved to me.

While in Europe it is accompanied by the cold of winter, here it comes amidst blooming nature – the earth awakens to life, the air is full of fragrances and people’s hearts overflow with admiration and gratitude. Flowers spread across the countryside like a sea of ​​colors and the sun spreads its bright palm over everything.

The New Year enters us with the scent of flowers, with the lightness of new clothes and with the melody of songs that sound as if they were born directly from spring. Ethiopians know how to celebrate holidays as a community – together over food, together in joy. And the one who has more always shares with love with the one who has less. That’s how it used to be, and in my heart it will be forever.

I look forward with hope and believe that today's Ethiopia will also open up into beauty, just as a flower opens every year at the time of our new year.

God bless Ethiopia