Meskel, an Ethiopian Orthodox holiday

I admit that I know nothing about Ethiopia (where did my history teachers fail me?) so doing some research on it has been fun.

Meskel is the annual religious holiday recognizing the discovery of the True Cross (the actual cross by which Jesus was crucified). Queen Eleni found it in the fourth century.

Meskel occurs on the 27th of our September and the 17th of their Meskerem. The festival is known as the Geast of the exhalation of the holy cross and includes the burning of a large bonfire. A procession takes place to the location of the bonfire the evening before and the wood is decorated with daisies. After the fire the ashes are used to decorate ashes on the foreheads of participants in order to “cancel sins”

From Wikipedia