A List of the Major Festivals in Nigeria
I want peace and happiness. Not only for myself, For everybody. — Fela
In Nigeria, there’s never a dull moment. You just need to know what is happening and where it is happening. This is a preview of major festivals that are expected to rock the whole of Nigeria in 2016. So, do yourself a favor, get a calendar and mark the dates.
ARGUNGU FISHING FESTIVAL
EYO FESTIVAL
NEW YAM FESTIVAL
“Iwa ji” or “Iri ji ohuru” as the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria would call it, is observed as a public function on certain days of the year (in August). It is a celebration of the harvest season. Yam is a major staple food of this tribe and the first crop to be harvested. The festival features Igbo cultural activities in the form of contemporary shows, masquerade dances, and fashion parades. It is an event often characterized by eating of food delicacies made of yam and a lot of drinking.
The pounded yam dish placed in front of the partakers of the festival was as big as a mountain. People had to eat their way through it all night and it was only during the following day when the pounded yam “mountain” had gone down that people on one side recognized and greeted their family members on the other side of the dish for the first time. — Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart — 1958)
OFALA FESTIVAL
OJUDE OBA FESTIVAL
LEBOKU FESTIVAL
FELABRATION
Originally published at Enroute Nigeria.
