Filseta Lent/Fasting (Assumption of St.Mary)🇪🇹

Filseta fasting is a 16day fast, that is one of the most practiced lenting periods within the Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church, and the last fast of the year. It is observed in commemorations of the formation and assumption of Saint Mary. This fasting period extends for 16 days. I remember being 8yrs old when I was first allowed to not just lent, but spend 16days going to church everyday with my family during rainy season, with the entire neighbourhood. We followed the strict rules of fasting until 3pm, chanting, dressing up in traditional attire, & since it was keremt/no school seeing all the neibourhood kids & their families worshipping. Some devout followers go to a nearby monastery for 16days.

There are subsequent collective prayer times during each day of lent ( Kidase 2 1/2 hours, seatat 6 hours, Kidan 1 hour, serk 30 minutes.). This makes ten hours of collective prayers in a single day, throughout which the pilgrim will have to stand while fasting for more than 15hrs. When you add personal prayers to the collective ones, it makes more than 10 hours a day of standing still with no food, & with little comfort of sleeping afterwards as you are meant to sleep alone on the floor during the lenting period. This is what healers, doctors & wellness professionals have now labelled at intermittent fasting to detox the body & mind. 

After 16days of practicing filseta, there is a feeling of being lighter, joyful, spiritually heightened, & a deeper inner appreciation of our ancestors.  The mind, body & soul goes through healing, alignment, & balance, as your being is purified & cleansed, to live a spiritual life of service. An intense feeling of being at peace, in love & at ease.

The Story of Filseta

It is believed that on Tuesday, the third day after Saint Mary was buried, her body was resurrected and taken to Heaven as part of the Assumption of Saint Mary. Only one of the Apostles, St.Thomas, had not to witnessed this burial as he was stationed at the apostolic dioceses in India at the time. It was believed that he was taken by a cloud to witness the Assumption. As he was on his journey he met Saint Mary during her ascension, thinking he had missed the event he asked the Virgin Mary, "I did not see the resurrection of your Son; nor was I to witness yours, How sinful I am? " to which The Virgin Mary answered saying "Do not be sorry; the others did not see my resurrection and ascension, but you have." She gave St.Thomas a significant piece of garment known as Megnez or Seben in Ge'ez (Priests of the Ethiopian church usually cover their hand-held crosses with this to remember the Seben St. Thomas received from Saint Mary), a sign representing her glory and honor. She told St.Thomas to tell the other Apostles what he had seen when he reaches them. Later when St.Thomas met the other Apostles and heard of their accounts and witnessed the empty tomb of Saint Mary, he told them his account of the Assumption of Saint Mary.

Ashenda is a cultural festival celebrated in August in the northern regions of Ethiopia to commemorate the end of the two-week-long Filseta fast. Traditionally every year young girls come together in groups wearing traditional clothing singing & beating drums to celebrate the occasion.

Whether a believer, seeker, religious, spiritual or a tourist from a different religion or if you are not religious at all, the Filseta pilgrimage is one occasion worth experiencing even for a day. It is fascinating to have a look at hundreds of the faithful packed in a church compound, dressed in white & chanting prayers as a massive choire in unique yaredian melody daily. Challenging ones mind, body & emotion to be calm, still & at ease, to open your heart. Living a spiritual purposeful life in love deep within, forgiving yourself, & releasing the trauma, sins, & ancestors fate we were born into, allows our being to seek the truth within. You are more powerful than you think, make in the image of God, connected to Gods universe. 💜

Enquan Le Tsome Filseta Be Selam Aderasachu!!

By Dutchess@deldeyoch