Ashenda Axum

Axum, widely credited as Ashenda's place of origin roughly 1,600 years ago, hosts one of the festival's most historically significant local stagings each August. Girls in grass skirts woven from the region's distinctive tall grass move through neighbourhoods built beside Axum's ancient ruins, singing and dancing for small gifts in a celebration honouring the close of the Filseta fast to Mary.

Axum, the region traditionally credited by scholars as Ashenda's place of origin roughly 1,600 years ago, hosts one of the festival's most historically significant local stagings each August, when girls and young women across the ancient city celebrate the close of the Filseta fast honouring Mary, mother of Jesus, with the same house-to-house singing and grass-skirt traditions observed across Tigray.