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.
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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.
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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.
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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.]
People who have great hold on their culture and norms are the greatest of great people. These events do have an impact on our behaviors as well.
Please vote and comment on my post as well. https://steemit.com/hive-136998/@ibtisamwaqas/steemit-engagement-challenge-week-2-or-or-sharing-pakistan-s-culture
Thank you for reading man, there are alot of diverse cultural activities carried out around the world and this contest let's us see them from the point of view of those in the country and not just those going to see it on the internet. I would definitely visit yours
You are so right. I went through many posts from different user and everyone have shared such great stories and ways of writings ✍ ❤
Sadly I haven't witness any festival before and while reading this post I felt like I am missing out but hopefully i will soon. It seem you really had a nice time and this is the main objective of Nigeria festival.
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. 21 gun shot in the air is not easy because the sound of gun shot is very scary people around will be afraid especially women and children, wonderful post my friend
Thank you very much @swaylee (grand papi sway) for this interesting post.
I wish that one-day I can also attend some of this festivals, it is really nice to hear from you.
Have you supported steemit on sourceforge? If you haven't, please do so 🥰
Thanks
Beat if luck dear friend for this contest.
Thank you for sharing your country cultures and festivals with us its really goood.
Interesting practice. Have always been afraid of a gun so incase I was to be part of this tribe I wouldn’t have always been at the ceremony during the gun shots, will rather come to the ceremony after they are done with the fire of the 12 bullets into the air. Thanks for sharing.
Lol exactly, I usually come after the gun shots because 21 gun shots would definitely be alot to take in. Thanks for reading
You are welcome
The Ofala festival is actually a festival for the Rich and not just rich but wealthy. This culture is a culture that is worth preserving as it would empower we the young generation to make more and more money so as to up up a show better than our fathers.
Nice write up.♥️
Wow it's also for the rich, I had no idea sef. Thanks for the addition man
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