What Is Happening To Us.

Good day everyone, welcome to my blog. Happy new month to all of us.

Egungun festival is common among the Yoruba people in Nigeria. According to the records, egungun festival came into existence as a way of connecting the living with the dead in the olden days. It was believed that when an egungun comes to your household to pray (iwure) for the whole household, he has come as a representative of all the dead elders of such a household.

Egungun festival is usually celebrated between the months of July, August and down to December. The time of celebration differs from place to place. Egungun used to be a sacred creature that was well respected in olden days.

The people in my generation have turned everything into a cruise. We have fun and try to make money out of everything that comes our way. I remember my days in Mount Olivet Grammar School, there were days school would close because the famous Oloolu masquerade of Ibadan would be parading around our school area.

The image of the boy who ran off from the Atipako masquerade and almost lost his life to head and neck pain took a while to leave my memory. He was brought to school as a warning to all of us to be careful of the kind of masquerade to follow or watch.

What has happened to our culture? Is it dying off? Or are the custodians not leaving them in the hands of the right people?. The other day, I stumbled on a post on tiktok where they were displaying how Oro is being done, what we were told that it was forbidden to the eye of women and noninitiate men.

Some time last week, I was taking a walk in my area when this young masquerade came to me saying Iya mi fun mi owo odun(mother, give me money for this celebration). I quickly responded saying Ara orun kosi Nile oju wa a màa ri odun(masquerade, I do not have change on me, don't worry, I will settle you when we meet next year).

The next thing the masquerade said was don't worry mama e, i will come to your house to collect it once I pull this costume. I was surprised and asked do you know me? Then the masquerade said you can snap me a picture to confirm my face later. Then it got me thinking, is this guy really carrying this masquerade as a reminder of our culture or out of hunger and in order to enrich his pocket.

My people, i want to hear your opinion about this topic i will be in the comments section.

Thank you for taking your time to read through, Yours truly @elizy, a teacher, mother and passionate writer

Enjoy today while it last, tomorrow is not promised.

All image is mine.