The ritual of blessings.
(i and my lovely Dad)
I was told of may traditional rite in my family, strongly practice by my grandparents.
I heard from Dad and Mum about many traditional rite practice, some of the stories amaze me, some left me with shock while some i wish it can still be restored and practice strongly in this days of our new generation of youth...I have grown to witnessed only few out of the many stories i was told.
And here i want to share with you some of the family ritual i grow to see in the family and it significant or the uniqueness of such ritual.
First of all i want to give a little geology of my family:
My grandfather married about four wives.but out of the four wives only two wives stay with him to make a family. My father mother's happened to be the last wife which happened to be my grandmother.
My grandmother has seven(7) children.Five(5) males and two(2) females.
Among the seven children my Dad is the first Son and the first Child of my grandmother, then the last born which happened to a twins (both males).One of tje twins is late by now but all other childrens (which are now my Uncles and Aunties ) including my Dad, are still alive today.
The ritual i wanted to state here in specifically is what we call "Saraka" in hausa language but in my language we call it "Esheli" (That's in Eggon language, the majority language spoken by most indigenous people of Nasarawa state Nigeria). The "Esheli or Saraka" is a ritual done to attract blessings upon the family:
The blessings can be in the form of peace in the family, increase in the farm yield produced, favor from known and unknown people...and others blessings.
The ritual is done once in a year.At the end of the ritual, the family celebrate together in dancing and sharing of food to neighbors and even visitors who happened to be around during the celebration, though the ritual is permitted to be witness by only the male children of the house and the older women of the the house.Stranger are not permitted to witness the ritual.
Now i believed you may want to know how is the ritual done, right🤷♂️🤷♂️
The ritual is done in the honor of the last born who happen to be twins. It is believed in the family that twins has some special gifts, so ritual actually is made in other to fortified those special gifts:
Usually they get white cock slaughter it and spread the blood around a clay pot which no one else open it except the twins and the elders doing the ritual. The feathers of the cock are remove and place inside the clay pot, then the twins will come and make their prayers there, after which the pot is closed again, then the same process is repeated the following year.
One thing that is so special about this ritual is the availability of food, we wey like food...Lol.
Food no go killed me one day sha🤩.
Then another unique thing you see during this ritual, is total harmony in the family. And if you are an angry person, and your anger go feel boil reach 100℅, that day you must not be angry with people around o else the ritual may not accepted🤩.
So that day, you must control your anger no matter how someone offend you or even if na the devil himself come to trouble or offend you, you must just allow peace to reign that day...That's how unique and special the ritual is.
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