Hello, everyone.
designed on canva.
I welcome you all to my blog. Culture is indeed the beauty of our lives, as it defines our way of life and way of doing things. Lately, a lot of our cultures are slowly becoming part of the past, but when we reminisce about them, we see the beauty of culture and reasons we should not allow our culture or any culture to fade.
I am not really a fan of gatherings, but once in a while I do attend certain gatherings, most of which are for traditional reasons. There are so many cultures and ways of life I am curious about and will want to learn more about.
I have the Umuahia ekpe Festival on my list. I have heard about this festival and read about it during my school days, but was not enough as I was not satisfied with just reading and not experiencing what it's all about. They say experience is the best teacher. Two weeks ago, I finally had the experience I longed for, and half of my questions were answered.
I attended the Ekpe Festival. in Dike ukwu autonomous community, Umuopara in Umuahia. I had to feed my eyes and ask all the questions I had in mind; some were answered to my satisfaction, while others were not.
The Ekpe Festival (masquerade festival) is an annual festival where all the masquerades of the town come out to perform. Before they start performing, they first of all pay homage to the elders and title men of the town. Masquerades from nearby communities come to support the community in celebrating their masquerade festival.
The masquerades have a leader, or should I say an overall leader, called the Okishiekpe, which means the head of the masquerades. The Okishiekpe comes out after all the other masquerades are done performing; before it comes out, all the other masquerades must have left the streets, and kids are not allowed to see it, as it was time for all the kids to go inside.
The other masquerades performed from around 2 p.m. until 6 p.m., and at 6 p.m. they retired to their mgbara that was made of palm leaves. About 30 minutes later, Okishiekpe was out, and the whole community made some noise. He had his followers, and they all followed him as he moved around.
If I had the power to declare a holiday, then every Ekpe festival day would be a holiday. Culture and tradition are slowly fading away, but with this holiday, I think they will be observed every year, and there's no way this particular festival will become a thing of the past.
Thanks for reading my post.
All images were taken by me.