HISTORY ON THURSDAYS WITH COLLYBRIGHT
AFRILOWEEN
Yeah! It's
Halloween time!
OK, just in case
many of us don't know what Halloween is, here is a background to what Halloween
is all about.
Halloween or
Hallowe'en also known as Allhalloween,
All Hallows' Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31st of
October, every year, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows'
Day. It begins the three-day observance of All hallowtide, the time in the
liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows),
martyrs, and all the faithful departed. It is widely believed that many
Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly
the Gaelic festival Samhain; that such festivals may have had pagan roots.
Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, disguising, attending Halloween
costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires,
apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions,
telling scary stories, and watching horror movies. In many parts of the world,
the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending
church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular,
although elsewhere it is a more commercial and secular celebration. Some
Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition
reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods.
Well, I'm in no way
talking about Halloween as the title of my article is AFRILOWEEN. I went on
social media and I saw how this FESTIVAL is so much celebrated. Yes, I believe
it should be celebrated because it is a well known (famous) festival celebrated
as a western cultural heritage and value. But the question is, how much value
we (Africans) place on our own cultural heritage? We always see the festival of
the Western world clean and undefiled, yet we paint our own culture black and
undignified!
The Western world
has more suiting words for their own culture making us buy it without probing
nor questioning. The witchcraft we have today here in Africa is called Sorcery
in the western world. We call them herbalists, they call them sorcerers.
Africa is a
continent with so much cultural heritage that are too beautiful when beholding
their sights, most especially here in the part of the world, Nigeria. We always
celebrate western culture and always see ours (culture and festivals) inferior,
archaic and undignifiable.
We always label our
very own cultural heritage as occultic when we are suppose to celebrate it with
passion in our possession. The likes of New yam Festival of the Igbo people, is
an annual cultural festival by the Igbo people held at the end of the rainy
season in early August.
New
yam festival - The festival is practiced
throughout West Africa (especially in Nigeria and Ghana and other African
countries and beyond, symbolizing the conclusion of a harvest and the beginning
of the next farming cycle. The celebration is a very culturally based occasion,
tying individual Igbo communities together as essentially agrarian and
dependent on yam. Now, we hear of this, many label it fetish and occultic.
Take a look at
another festival here in Africa, Eyo festival, popular amongst the Lagosians.
The Eyo Festival, otherwise known as the Adamu Orisha Play, is a Yoruba
festival unique to Lagos, Nigeria.
Eyo
Festival - In modern times, it is presented by the
people of Lagos as a tourist event and due to its history, is traditionally
performed on Lagos Island. But this has occasionally been termed occultic since
it belongs to the masquerade family. And who says masquerade is fetish? The
Halloween with the costume is what? There one hundred and one other festivals
here in Africa that beautiful and eventful, like osun-osogbo festival in
Nigeria, AfrikaBurn in South Africa, Chale Wote in Ghana, Lake of stars in
Malawi, Reed Dance in Swaziland, amongst other.
It's high time we
started seeing and placing more values on our culture, traditions, and beliefs.
I'll be left with no choice to say this, the Ooni of Ife demonstrated this when
he made Prophet Naomi his latest olórí (Queen), which in it simplicity connote
tradition is not religion. It is simply a way of life of our people before the
advent of Christianity or Islam.
May God grant us
the insight on our cultural values beyond religion, modernization and
civilization.
My Africa; My
culture
My culture; My
heritage!
Happy Halloween,
Happy AFRILOWEEN!
Source: Mccollybright.blogspot.com.ng
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