It's wonderful to be back again this week to pen down yet another interesting writing. Thanks, @hiveghana for the weekly opportunity to share my world with everyone in this wonderful community. One of this week's prompts drove me down memory lane which I would love to share with you all. Vacation is always interesting, and it is to be enjoyed but sometimes it doesn't go as planned, and when unforeseen circumstances happen you just have to find a way around it and have fun.
The genesis of my hilarious vacation experience resulted from the love I had for nature and food. You can call me a foodie, I don't joke with good food and that always made me miss my grandma's food and that always made me run to the village any vacation I got the opportunity to travel. My grandmother (maternal) is a good cook and you can say that over and over again. After my junior certificate examination, I had a long holiday therefore I decided to go to the village for a vacation. I already feel like laughing right now because everything that happened then is flashing right in front of my eyes.
Ever since I started visiting the village in childhood when I went with my parents till I was old enough to visit by myself I have never come across a masquerade before although I do hear the stories about them. The first day I got to the village, I met the village in a happy mood and I was told the masquerade festival is tomorrow. I was very happy because I had never seen one before, I awaited the great day just to see what a masquerade looks like. Although I was told they are human in costume they also possess spiritual powers to do the things beyond ordinary.
The next morning, the day of the masquerade festival, I woke up early pressuring my grandma to dress up quickly in order not to be late for the festival. On getting to the venue, it was filled up with a crowd cheering and applauding with drummers beating their drums loudly. I was excited because I had never witnessed such an event before, I was clapping and shouting at the top of my voice. After the open speech by the village head, the ceremony began with full force, the masquerades started showing up at the venue one after the other. "What a wonderful costume," I said to the girl sitting beside me.
"You don't live here?" she asked, I nodded in affirmative. She responded "I see", I was wondering why she said so but I didn't bother to ask why. I overheard some girls sitting behind me discussing going after the masquerades after their performance. "That sounds like fun," I said to myself and decided to go with them for the adventure. After the event, I left where I was sitting waiting for the masquerades to leave so that I could follow them. As soon as I saw them leaving, I hurriedly stood up and joined others singing and clapping behind the masquerades as they journeyed back to wherever they came from.
After a while, I couldn't lay hold of what changed the atmosphere as it happened so fast, the masquerades were holding canes in both of their hands but I couldn't ask what it was used for as I saw it as part of their costume. Suddenly, they changed their voices into something scary and started pursuing everyone following them. Everyone was running to avoid being flogged by the masquerades but unfortunately, some still got beaten including me. It wasn't a palatable situation as I have never experienced such before, it was a hilarious but bad situation at the same time. I got home with stripes on my hands and legs and I narrated my ordeal to my grandma.
She laughed for a while and told me that's how they do, and it was the tradition. I had to nurse the stripes given to me by the masquerades for some days but it was quite an experience that whenever I remember I laugh out loud.
Thanks for your time and your comments will be appreciated.