Greetings!
Tradition as we all know is the way of live of a particular group of people living in a geographical location in a particular place. This is to tell us that tradition is general and there's no individual person without a tradition and this is because we belong to a particular community or the other. Even in the modern day world where religion has taken over, tradition still exist. Tradition has to do with the history of a particular group of people living in a specific location. It's the history passed down from generation to generation mostly orally that become tradition. So, even the modern religions have their own tradition and that's what they call doctrine. So many believers have been indoctrinated but, that's not where I'm going.
When I see this week prompt, what came through my mind was the African tradition which is very rich . Although some people refer to African tradition has idol worshipping, but not at all. This is because, tradition is quite different from religion and belief. So, we should not make a mistake of intertwining the two. In Africa, most especially from my own area , there's series of traditional practices which at most times comes with celebration. One thing that you see when tradition is taking place is festival and the custodian of the tradition are mostly the traditional rulers that rule over the people.
So, for my area, there's something that comes and that have become our tradition right from the inception of the world. What's is that tradition that comes up every year in my area that comes with festivity. That tradition and festival is the NEW YAM FESTIVAL. This festival comes with festivities and it's a week long celebration. This is a tradition and festival that marks the harvest of the new yam in my town of Otun Ekiti a yoruba town in the south western part of Nigeria.
To mark the festival, farmers come to the palace square with the Yams they harvested from their farm. So, you see plenty of yams being donated by farmers to celebrate a new season of yam. Also, in my town of Otun Ekiti, nobody dares eat yam until after the celebration and this is because, the celebration marks the beginning of another season. So, all the yams donated will be cooked and distributed to people for eating. Some will be pounded and eating with Egusi soup, a local soup in my town. You see women doing the cooking with hunters going to the forest to hunt for animals. All these add value and glamour to the new yam festival in my town.
Also, during the week long celebration, you see people, playing different kind of local or traditional games, such as Ayo olopon, ludo, local wrestling and so on. Also, during these period of the celebration, you see people eating and dining, with palm wine being the major drink in my community.
Now, on the final day of the celebration, the king of my town will always be on his royal throne praying for a fruitful season ahead, with drummers and singers in action. People comes to the event with their different uniform (Aso Ebi) from one compound to another. So, the hightlight of the event is the declaration of the new season open with prayer.lest I forget, during the festival, the king also used to announce to the entire town the winner of the farm contest. What do I mean by this, the farm contest takes place among the farmers and the farmer with the biggest tuber of yam is always declared the winner. Finally after the grand finale of the celebration, the king declared the celebration closed. It's a very big celebration that people outside the country come home to celebrate and its brings unity among the sons and daughters of my town.
I love my tradition, I love my town.
Thanks for reading.
All photos are AI generated.