Tour Guide, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Irreecha is one of the most colorful and beautiful Oromo national cultural events that has been celebrated throughout since the last week of August and the entire September and also in October in Oromia and globally where Oromians have been residing (Africa, Australia, Europe and North America). The main Irreecha day was celebrated at Lake Hora Harsadii, Bishoftu, Central Oromia, nearer to the capital Finfinnee on 29th September 2013.
According to local news sources from Bishoftuu, over 3 million people attended this year’s Irreecha Malka celebration at Hora Harsadii. Traditionally, the Oromo practiced Irreecha ritual as a thanksgiving celebration twice a year (in autumn and spring) to praise Waaqa(God) for peace, health, fertility and abundance they were given with regards to the people, livestock, harvest and the entire Oromo land. Irreecha is celebrated as a sign of reciprocating Waaqain the form of providing praise for what they got in the past and is also a form of prayer for the future. In such rituals, the Oromo gather in places with symbolic meanings, such as hilltops, riverside and shades of big sacred trees. …These physical landscapes are chosen for their representations in the Oromo worldview, for example, green is symbolized with fertility, peace, abundance and rain.
In Oromia, the core center of Irreecha celebration has been around Hora Arsadi in Bishoftu town, some 25 km to the south of Finfinne, the capital city. Annually, particularly during the Irreechabirraa (the Autumn Irreecha) in September or October, the Oromo from different parts of the country come together and celebrate the ritual. In the past few decades, Irreecha celebrations have been expanded both in content as well as geographical and demographic representations.