ERITREAN FESTIVAL IN THE UK 2008
By Senait Tekle,
Fesitivals have been in the Eritrean culture for many years and were usually celebrated in urban areas. Some of the festivals Nigdet were attended by the residents of a place and its surrounding, while some others are attended by people from many areas. Today the later is named as traditional festival for involves people at national level.
Why have festivals been celebrated for so many years and why are they so important to the Ertreans? Festival is a way of maintaining our identity and culture and if done properly is a key motivator and medium of transmitting heritage and other factors..
Today we may not be able to visit all these wonderful sites or even celebrate festivals in the name of religion but the aim still remains the same. Eritrean all over the world try to celebrate it once a year in whatever way they can.
The Eritrean Festival in the UK was first held in 2000 at Alexandra Palace as a result of the coordinated and well structured process of nation building and celebrating life that was initiated in Asmara and spread world wide with the aim of transferring our traditional and cultural heritage to our children and the youth, otherwise known as the second generation. As parents, we are all responsible for education and enlightening our children our languages, traditional and cultural heritage as well as instill a sense of belonging and identity at their tender age. In fact it would not be an exaggeration to state that this is part of their basic human right. Every child has a right to belong to a nation or origin and have pride in ones identity, traditional heritage.
This being the fundamental philosophy and corner stone driving the Festivals, the UK festivals has in the past and with the help of dedicated parents and other volunteers made special arrangements to fulfill the Festival needs of our children by trying to transfer the Eritrean culture and tradition as well as Eritrean patriotism. This process of transferring cultural and traditional heritage from parents to children is paramount to the very existence and continuity of our communities in the Diaspora. Futhermore, these festivals taking place all over the world are part and parcel of the nation building process. The processes of education nationaslism of all ages in and out of the country is pivotal part of tomorrow and its imperative that this generation acquires the traditional, cultural identity richness of being an Eritrean in addtion to the scientific and technological know how so that we can continue to exist as a people both within the Diaspora and Eritrea.
This year, the UK Festival has made vast improvements in both the initial preparation, venue, resources and involvement of the children themselves in the process, content and quality of the programme planned especially with regards to the children. The co-ordinators and volunteers have spent several days preparing, planning and obtaining resources that will make this Festival a special occasion for our children.
Fesitivals in the UK have until now been celebrated indoors and although the efforts made in these venues is much appreciated, it did not reflect the true essence of what a festival is. The main criteria for classifying a celebration as festival or not, are whether it has national feature, historical depth, participation of children and families, involvement of both genders and all religions.
The indoor venues were able to cater for the national feature, involvement of both genders, and all religions but was restricted by space to cater for children and hence the lack of historical depth.
This year however, we are proud to be holding our UK festival in the beautiful grounds of Edmonton Park North London where everyone will have a chance to participate. There is such a buzz in the air and much anticipation among the children and families.
Our children are doing whatever it takes to take part on the day and are constantly coming up with creative ways of learning and transmitting our heritage and other factors. We had an orientation day at Hyde Park on the 16 of August 2008 and about 20 children with some of their families turned out.
All 20 children and their families participated fully in rehearsal and I was actually blown away by the fact that these children had learnt in depth about the 9 regions of Eritrea and had brief history of the armed struggle and are now even coming up with creative but modern way transmitting the knowledge they have gained. Families who had only come to accompany their children for the rehearsals, but had no intention of coming to the actual festival themselves ended up buying entry tickets for themselves and their friends for the day and also volunteering to help and to pass the word on.
The highlight of the day for me however was the fact that some of these children that came to the orientation day had never met before and were at first quite shy and did not want to participate. As the day progressed however they were all playing and wanting to work together and it was difficult to separate them. In seeing this I said “mission accomplished!”
The preparation for the festival is creating a bonding between the Eritrean children and the magic word called ‘Unity’ is evidently being seen. It is unity that brought our freedom and in unity we will continue to conquer and overcome.
Victory to the masses
Senait Tekle
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