If I were to write on this topic those days, maybe I'll have options. I grew up in a Christian family and the only festival I've witnessed so far was twin festival.
Twins and triplets are believed to be a special beings that needs special attention. In fact, some people believe they are semi gods and are treated as such. If a twin is born into a family, there's a cultural believe that the family is a very special and fortunate one and that having and raising twins in that family will make the family automatically wealthy irrespective of their source of income. I really do not believe in this because I've seen a lot of very poor twins in my life.
What usually warrant the twin festival in a family is when it is sensed that things are not going smoothly in the family especially with finances, there's a believe that they've probably offended the gods of twinning and the only way to appeal is to organize a twin festival
Dignitaries
The celebrant twins will be the special host and Invitations will be sent to all possible interested twins in the locality and those will be the special guests of honour. The hosts are usually dressed in white native attires while their guests can wear any attire but each twin's outfits are usually matching.
The involved twins are usually less than 12years old from my observation however adult twins can be among the invited guests if they are interested
The Menu
There's a special food for this occasion and this food is believed in yoruba land to be special for twins although people do take it commonly at home. It is called Ekuru in Yoruba language. Its prepared from blended soft pilled beans wrapped in local leave and cooked till its solidified. Its usually served with spiced pepper that can contain variety of fishes and meat.
Ceremonial rites
This is where the main event occurs. Its more or less a prayer ceremony with some rituals attached to it. I can not really ascertain the level of ritual involved. I know there a session where they use live chicken.
As regards the prayers, they make use of natural local ingredients like honey, sugarcane, local pepper kolanut.......
The ceremonial twins together with their invited colleagues are usually involved with the prayer the hosts alone participate in the ritual.
The party
That's the part of the ceremony I liked then as a child. There's usually more than enough ekuru to eat with lots of drinks and alcohol. Its usually enough to go round and even distributed to neighbors houses. They usually invite a local musician who handles the entertainment aspect. We'll dance and merry till we are all tired to go home to our parents. Its always fun.
The aim of everything is to reverse any curse and return normalcy to the finances of the parents. How effective this is, I don't know. But the festival is always very interesting and lively with lots of merriment.
Thank you for reading
