Steemit Engagement Challenge Week 2 || Share your Country's Culture by @swaylee

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Greetings Everyone,
Hello everyone and welcome to my 1st engagement contest entry for week 2. It has been a wonderful first week and this week we would be aiming much higher. In Nigeria, we have numerous cultural traditions and festivals but my favorite one I would love to talk about is the Ofala festival and luckily for me, I attended one last year December and I have a lot of pictures to show. Let's all sit back and enjoy the post.

Before I start, I would like to note that culture is a particular people's way of life. A festival is a period of celebration for various reasons, it is usually for religious or cultural reasons.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The Ofala Festival is a cultural festival celebrated every year by the Igbo people especially those from Anambra State. The festival was partially derived from Igue festival from those in Benin. It is a festival where the king of the community celebrates his reunion with the members of the community. The king secludes himself from everyone for a couple of days usually a week while undergoing purification, after that week of purification, he reunites with his people during the Ofala festival to pray for the wellbeing of the community. The festival also makes sure to celebrate those with Chieftaincy titles and elders of the community.

It is usually celebrated in October but can be shifted by the Igwe(king) of that community because the celebration is about him. Various communities hold theirs but here I would be focusing on the one I attended last year. In my village, where it is celebrated they usually postpone it in December where the majority of the villagers who had gone to work in the city would be present for Christmas break.

ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT DURING THE FESTIVAL

Entrance of the Ichies	The Igwe/king (seated)

The festival begins with the shooting of 21 bullets into the air from a traditional gun. Then there will be singing, dancing and few other Cultural activities through out the night until the next day. On the afternoon of the next day, people from far and wide come together to celebrate with the community in their cultural wears well dressed for the occasion. This is then followed by the procession of the village chiefs (the ones on red caps) and they are called Ndi Ichie. During their entrance there would be a band playing royal music then when they are done with their procession, a gun is shot in the air to signify the Arrival of the King/ Igwe. He enters slowly while dancing with his supporters and well wishers and proceeds to his seat of honour.

While seated, the Ndi Ichie would come and pay homage to him in order of hierarchy and importance as seen in the second picture above after which other high chiefs and well wishers come to pay their homage respectively. During the festival there would be alot of eating, singing and dancing with various groups in the community coming to perform a little cultural entertainment for the king.

A long masquerade	A tree masquerade

Another major highlight of the event is when masquerades (people dressed as spiritual beings) come in and dance in their different regalia. Then the audience cheers and the king supports them including people from the audience. There are numerous types of masquerades as seen in the picture above and they are present in most Igbo festivals. This goes on until the festival ends and people depart to their homes.

The Ofala festival is a really popular and important festival amongst the Igbos especially those from Onitsha in Anambra state. As a people we always follow our Cultural norms and values and they have lots of significance and meaning and they are passed down from generation to generation.

[When I attended the event, I only took videos so the screenshots used in this post were taken of the video by the author on his device.]