Celebrating 'Jimce Barkhadle' (Good Friday) in Somalia

[N.O.R.F]

I landed in Berbera on what is called Good Friday in Christian countries. Chatting away in the car I come to learn Somalis celebrated and performed prayers at a location near Hargaisa back in the 60s and 70s and the day was called ‘Jimce Barkhadle’. This apparently included using water and marking a cross on one’s forehead. Ignorance was abundant and going to this place was believed to cure one of his sins and cure diseases etc.

 

Below is what I found on google.

 

 

 

JIMCA BARKHADLIHII aan weyneyn jirray.

April 2, 2010

By staff-reporter

 

Jimce Barkhadlow maxaad ahayd?

 

Maanta waxa waddammadan qarbiga laga xusayaa Jimca Barkhadlaha ( good Friday), innaguna aan xusi doonno bisha dambe, waxan xasuustaa siyaaradii iyo xafladihii lagu samay jiray tuulada la yidhaa Aw Barkhad leh, oo ku taalla degmada Hargeysa. Halkaasi oo sida la aammin sanaa loo tegi jiray cibaado. Dadkuna ay rumaysnaayeen, qofka saddex jeer tagaa in uu la mid yahay mid Xajka tegey.

 

Dadku waxa ay maqaamka ku yaalla tuuladaa geyn jireen xoolo, lagu qalo, lacag iyo Jaad lagu mirqaamo. Caa’iladaha qaarna waxa ay dhammaantood tegi jireen Aw Barkhadle, oo ay ka soo ducaysan jireen. Gaar ahaan waxa looga soo ducayn jiray carruurta, dadka buka iyo kuwa muraadka leh.

 

Maalintan Jimca Barkhadluhu waxa ay dadka u ahayd maalmaha ixtifaalaadka diiniga ah la sameeyo, ee la wada farxo, cunnooyin fiican la cuno, sida fiican loo labbisto, la digriyo. Dhallin yartana waxa ay u ahayd bar kulan oo sida aroosyada qof walliba calafkiisa ka raadsado, oo ay wada tuntaan habeen iyo dharaarba.

 

Xafladda Jimca Barkhadluhu waxa ay kor u qaadi jirtay ganacsiga waxana ay la iman jirtay xarako saa’id ah. Oo xoolaha aad loo soo iib geeyo amma aad loo kala iibsado, gawaadhida la raacayo la sii carbuunto, haddii kale aanad helay gaadiid aad ku tagto Aw Barkhadle. Waxanan xasuustaa sidii ay Wajaale, Dilla, Boorama, Hargeysa iyo Burco u cammirnaan jirtay maalmaha u diyaar garowga Jimca Barkhadlaha amma maalintaasi.

 

Dadka qofka awoodi kari waaya in uu tago, waxa uu qali jiray neef amma waxa uu marti sharaf u ahaa qoys kale oo neefka awooday. Waxa kale oo ay hadyado ka sugi jireen dadkii siyaarada tegey, oo keeni jiray ciid cad oo carruurta iyo dumarkuba ay wejiga marsan jireen. Calaamad iska tallaab ah ayaanay wajiga marsan jireen. Waxa kale oo ay dadka siyaarada tegey ka keeni jireen, wax yaal ay odhan jireen waa barako, sida gurub ay ka soo jareen saantii xoolaha lagu qalay Maqaamka oo ay qacmaha ku soo xidhan jireen, qaarna ay saaxiibbadood ugu soo talo geli jireen. Cajalado ay ka duuban yihiin qasaa’idkii iyo dikrigii culumada ayaa iyana lagu dhageysan jiray makhaayadaha lagu qayiyo iyo majlisyada.

 

Sidii waayadii hore ma loo tixgeliyaa Jimca Barkhadlihii?

 

Culimada casriga ah iyo guud ahaanba dadka diinta u ehelka ahi waxa ay dhawaalaba ka sinnaayeen, in ay arrimahaasi u arkaan bidco amma gaalnimo yihiin. Isla markaana aanan loo baahnayn in diinta lagu xuso waxa ay dadku u yaqaannaan Jimca Barkhad laha. Culumada sii xag jirka ahina ay u arkaan in xabaalaha oo la siyaartaa ay gaalnimo tahay iyo wax yaal la mid ah.

 

Laakiin, intii aan qurbaha Yurub joogay ayaan arkay iyada oo ay dadka diinta masiixiga iyo Yuhuudda haystaa ay xurmo gaar u hayaan Jimca Barkhadlaha ku beegan manta, sidaasi daraaddeedna, loo fasax qaatay loona xafladaynayo.

 

Dabayaaqadii siddeetanaadkii oo aan Khaliijka joogayna maan arag wax hadal haya Jimce Barkhadle amma u xafladaynaya.

 

Haddaba akhristow adiga sidee arrimaha Jimca Barkhadluhu kula yihiin.

 

Good Friday

 

Ahmedweli

http://awdalpress.com/index/?p=1638

[N.O.R.F]

Welcome Jimce Barkhadle” or Good Friday

Jimce Barkhadle........By Ahmed H Nur

 

Welcome Jimce Barkhadle" or Good Friday or Pascua or Paques or Påske (pronounced: pooske) or Eostre and many other names of the occasion. The following is not about the Christian tradition of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is about a little startling discovery I made this morning! I felt ****** as I realized the connection. ****** because I knew well of the events, each in its way, but never saw the link. The revelation came to me from a conversation between a mother and a daughter in the back seat of my car. It is early Wednesday morning, the 20th.of April 2011. There is little traffic on the roads as many had already travelled out of the city to the mountains or elsewhere. In Easter Holidays, Norwegians traditionally follow the receding snow and go to the mountains for skiing and relaxation. Recently, many choose travel to the sun in the South. Skjærtorsdag (Thursday before Good Friday) marks the beginning of a week-long holiday-break.

 

My wife and I were driving my mum-in-law to an early appointment with her doctor. There, in the calm of the misty morning, cruising on Ring 3, the women in my company struck this conversation. It started off with whether the senior mother called home (Hargeisa) lately. "Yes", the response came and added that most of the family members in Hargeisa were already in Aw Barkhadle, awaiting the "Jimce Barkhadle". "It falls on the coming Friday as you know", she continued. Aw Barkhadle is a little village, about 30 km to the East of Hargeisa, on the Hargeisa – Berbera Road. And Jimce Barkhadle is an annual religious festival which takes place in the village. The origin of the festival and why it is arranged in this particular place has most definitely some historical connotations but this is long lost and forgotten.

 

Flashback:

 

I all of a sudden realized that "Jimce Barkhade" which is so passionately celebrated in Somaliland, is the same as the Christian Easter. Not only do the observed dates coincide, the meaning of the "day" and the manifestitations of the celebration are also the same. Modern-day Easter is known as the moveable feast since it falls on different dates each year. In The West, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. Easter is therefore observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25 every year and this coincides perfectly with the Jimce Barkhadle observations in Somaliland. Good Friday, which is the Friday before Easter Eve, fully corresponds to Jimce Barkhadle, meaningwise. Barkhadle means the Good One, the Virtuous, the Righteous or the Pious.

 

During the Jimce Barkhadle Festival people, especially the young, used to paint a white Cross on their foreheads. This reflects the remains of the Christian traditions. Perhaps even pagan traditions before Christianity and Islam. In modern-day, Somali context, Jimce Barkhadle is believed to be an Islamic religious celebration. Popular believe has that partaking in 2 Jimce Barkhadle Festivals would amount to one Hajj Visit. I do not know how the occasion is celebrated these days, but in the past, this used to be a great fun festival, especially for the young people. There used to be a bounty of food and mesmerizing religious chanting under every tree. The small hills on both sides of the Doox echoed the beat of the drums – The Noor Qani as we called them. There was the corner for infertile women to sit on "Miracle Stones". This costed the women one shilling per sitting. Some of the stone-owners charged more, promising quicker results or the firstborn to be a boy. The infertility healing is an important relationship between our Jimce barkhadle and the believed originions of the Easter. Read about the origins of the Easter on the internet. There were many other "Barako" experiences, whether in this world or in the other, as the learned sheikhs used to say. For the kids, it was an occasion for running away from home. Staying up late with no parent supervision, playing in the Doox the whole day and sleeping in the open was fun, I remember.

 

Two central figures

 

Jimce Barkhadle has two central historical men: Sheikh Yusuf Al-Kawnayn and Bucur Bacayr. The former is said to have been a good guy (a Moslem) who saved the people from the evil rule of the latter. While the existence of these men is very strong in Somaliland folk believes, I found no written literature on these mythological figures. If you know something about them, or know about a resource of reliable literature, please share!

 

Ahmed H Nur

e-mail:

ahnur@online.no

http://samotalis.blogspot.com/2011/04/welcome-jimce-barkhadle-or-good-friday.html

[Faarax-Brawn]

This is not a late april fools prank is it,Norf?

[N.O.R.F]

No saxib. I was just as suprised.

[Faarax-Brawn]

WOW! This is truely amazing...

 

PS You need to edit the title of the thread, LMAO. This after all happens in Somaliland, you dont want the truely patriotic lot to feel disenfranchised now do u?

[N.O.R.F]

There was no Somaliland in the 60s and 70s

[Faarax-Brawn]

N.O.R.F;823714 wrote:

There was no Somaliland in the 60s and 70s

LMAO!

[SayidSomal]

N.O.R.F;823714 wrote:

There was no Somaliland in the 60s and 70s

Some would argue otherwise

 

There are still some old testament practices still practised in Somalia - especially northern/eastern parts - including dabshid, duraan and new testament stuff like faadumo siyaar etc and not forgeting forbiding what Allah has made xalaal - e.g. man do not eat caloosha, kelyaha, madaxa, carrabka etc - just like the orthodox jews