HOW THE IGBOS CELEBRATE NEW YAM FESTIVAL

In Nigeria, there are three major tribes  namely the igbos, Yoruba and Hausas. the Igbos occupy the eastern part of the country while the Yorubas occupy the west and the Hausas occupy the north. In igbo land, there are different festivals but the most popular of them all is the new yam festival. The new yam festival is celebrated every year and  some people start theirs September while others celebrate theirs October. and it lasts for only a day. The Yam is planted every January and by August, the yam is harvested. On that day, different Neighboring communities are invited, different personalities from home and abroad are also invited. It starts like this, many people will present their yam to the village square and prizes are been awarded to the people with the biggest yam from 1st position to third position. The yams are prepared , some are cooked while others are roasted. After this have been done, The king will eat the yam first before it is been shared to the people that are gathered at the village square. In my village, we normally give some tubers of yam and Cow to the parish priest to show their appreciation to God almighty and also to thank the Priest for all he has done for them. After that, entertainment follows in the traditional way with different masquerades dancing and entertaining the crowd. There are also different dancing groups, masquerades from other villages to make the event colorful. The next day, the entire council of elders with the king will kill another cow and cook some tubers of yam for themselves and they also give some poor people some yams and meat from their kill. Then on the coming Sunday, the King(igwe in my language) and his council will go to the Church for a special thanksgiving thanking God for a successful new yam festival and praying to God to grant them the grace to see many more new yam festivals.

 Traditional masquerades



The King cutting the new yam






some traditional dancers