What happens in New Yam Festival?
The joy of the New Yam Festival is celebrated with various cultural and community groups performing dances, songs, dramas and acrobatics. The New Yam Festival is a time of celebration and thanksgiving for most Nigerian communities, and the Ogidi Ijumu community is not an exception.
How do they celebrate yam festival?
Traditions. The first offering of the crop is made to the ancestral gods by the chief priest of the Ashanti; the religious rite includes taking the yams on the second day of the festival in a procession to the ancestral ground. Music and dance are part of the festivities on all the five days.
What was the purpose of the Yam Festival?
Each year on August 15, Benin celebrates the Yam Festival. The event marks the harvest period and draws thousands of Beninois and tourists to Savalou, the city of the Gbaguidi royal family. Savalou is widely known as the cultural and geographic center of yam cultivation.
How does the new yam festival end?
The myth of Ahiajoku is reenacted during the New Yam Festival each year. Each householder places four or eight new yams on the ground near a shrine. After saying some prayers, he cuts small portions off each end of the yams to symbolize the sacrifice of Ahiajoku.
Why are yams so important in Igbo culture?
Yams are the essential crop within Umuofia; the yam is a crucial staple in the Igbo diet. The number of yams a man successfully grows indicates his wealth and rank within the society. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed” (33).
Is the new yam festival biblical?
In that way, the new yam festival is now taken, more or less as a Christian festival. The tradition has stuck in most communities, like at Urualla in Ideato, and other communities which now traditionally celebrate the new yam festival today, the August 15th.
What was the yam a symbol of?
This is of course the African yam, a cornerstone of Igbo culture, as well as a symbol of masculinity, power, and wealth in the story.
What is new yam festival in Igbo land?
Igbo tradition The New Yam Festival is therefore a celebration depicting the prominence of yam in the social-cultural life of Igbo people. The evening prior to the day of the festival, all old yams (from the previous year’s crop) are consumed or discarded.
What is the origin of new yam festival in igboland?
According to Igwe Okwor, orurueshi marked the beginning of eating and harvesting of the first set of yams planted between December and January and harvested July. He said that iri ji festivals in Igboland because it was time of revival and rejuvenation of the people.
Who is the richest man in Igbo?
Emeka Offor – $5.8 billion Emeka Offor is the richest Igbo man Nigeria, with a net worth of $5.8 billion. Emeka Offor is engaged in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.