Nigeria festival Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nigeria festival - Research Paper Example A wide range of festivities began the eating of new yam (Falola 143). This festival is organized after the people are able to get enough yields after the cultivation season, so basically this is how they express their feelings of joy and happiness by organizing just a big festival that gladdens the entire land of Igbo. New Yam Festival is celebrated at the time of completion of some serious farm work done by men to produce yam. It’s a ritual of dramatic performance and is seen as a dynamic and integral part of the culture of the people of Igbo. This 8-day festival accommodates people from different villages as well and thanksgiving to the gods and ancestors is undertaken. Not only adults but both young and old citizens participate in this festive treat and perform various rituals (Kalu 184). Eating and drinking along with dancing and singing music are the main features of this big annual ritual festival. At different periodic levels, the male head of the family manifests his joy and happiness by ringing the bell of his buffalo several times. Wine is being served in horns of oxen and sometimes in buffaloes’. People who are poor and less privileged are not allowed to drink this way. Discrimination is one of the inner features of this celebration that takes place. These people use gourd cups, along with women and children. This festival is an official declaration of the eating of new yam which is the result of intense hard work all during the year (Okoroike 135). This festival holds a significant role in the lives of the people who belong to Igbo land. It is demonstrated at the beginning even before the ceremony is being commenced which is the ritual washing of the children which are about to partake in the festival. After making a ritual space with the help of leaves, children are made to stand in it and then with some religious recitations, through the throat, they are asked to pass certain materials and then spit them out on the ground. Some of