Steem engagement challenge-S12/W6|"The grand festival in my country."

edited on add text app

Hello friends!!

It's week 6 of Steemit engagement challenge season 12 and I can't miss it for anything. Stay with me..

What is the grand festival in your country, and how do you celebrate that festival?(Mention some rituals if you follow)

I am from Nigeria and Nigeria is blessed with different tribes and languages, having different cultures. I am from the Igbo speaking tribe found in the eastern part of Nigeria.

In the east where I come from we have a festival known as New yam festival, pronounced as iri ji.

screenshot of new yam festival gotten from Google

New yam festival originally was celebrated by only indigenous people of igbo land but now I heard this festival has also spread to other tribes.

Iri ji or new yam festival is a festival done in celebration of a fruitful harvest season. The yam is regarded as the king of food crops so it normally used on this festival as a representation.

white yam and vegetable sauce

It is only when this festival is celebrated that the Igbos are allowed to eat new yams from their harvest. It is usually a taboo to eat new yam when this festival has not been conducted.

This festival is celebrated every year in the month of August or October. Traditionally, Families come together at their market square of their village to celebrate this big occasion. Many dancer and masquerades are showcased on this big day.

After the dancing and singing, some tubers of yam are roaster there, and served with palm oil on local plates after prayers are done. The prayers done is usually a Thanksgiving prayers appreciating the God of harvest. Some declarations are made and yams are passed from one person to another.

After the celebration, people go back to their homes to continue the celebration. In their homes they can choose to make yam pepper soup with their new yam.

Would you love to go on a vacation during this festive period, or would you love to stay in your country and celebrate the festival with your family? Give the reason behind your choice

New yam festival is a festival that does not call for a long holiday. It is usually done just within 2-4 days depending on the family.

I would not want to travel for a vacation during this period of the festival. I would love to stay in my country celebrating with family, my first reason is because the time period of this festival is short and it is not even regarded as a holiday in my country, except one decide to make it a holiday for himself and family.

Secondly traveling for a vacation at this point is really expensive. The prices of goods and services has tripled so imagine what the price of this vacation cost will be. I will definitely love to travel by air which will cost nothing less than 100,000( 1000 steem) through and fro, cost of accommodation and cost of feeding will also be high. So instead of spending such amount of money right now, I would prefer to invest this money into something else and use a part of the money to celebrate with my family in my country.

Share with us if you have any memorable moments related to the festival

This year's yam festival was observed in the month of August. I could not travel to be with my family because the price of fuel was increased and subsidy removed. This also contributed to the increase price of other services.

I decided to stay at home where I live in the city of Lagos. My landlord the owner of the apartment where I live is from the eastern part of Nigeria so he normally observe this festival with his family but I didn't know because am not always around during this time. Below is an example of the type of yam and pepper soup brought to me for the celebration. I could not take a picture of the exact one on that day

Yam and pepper soup

He celebrated the festival with us, home and his family. His wife brought yam, white soup and meat for us to join in the celebration. Sorry I don't have a picture because it was very late at night. He played music and People gathered in his house to celebrate this occasion.

I thought I was going to miss out not knowing that my landlord and his wife had me in my mind. This is why this year's festival was memorable for me.

I would like to invite my friends to join this contest. @ninapenda @xkool24 @bossj23 @sahmie