Reterdeen Staff
Osun Osogbo festival began 700 years back. It follows a myth about an incredible hunter called Olutimehin. He led a group of settlers to settle on the bank of the stream so as to avoid the starvation in their previous residence. Osun, the water goddess was said to have appeared to Olutimehin and asked for him and his group to resettle to the present Osogbo town as she swore to protect the gathering and make their ladies productive in the event that they would offer her sacrifice yearly.
A Global Event
Today, the yearly penance has gone past the usual sacrifices to Osun, the river goddess, it has turned into a global festival of social occasions pulling in individuals from everywhere throughout the world. Each August, so many individuals from around the globe crowd to Osun State, Nigeria, to visit and take part in the well known, fourteen day long Osun-Osogbo Festival.
It is held at the celebrated and sacrosanct Osun Grove, which was named as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. In spite of the fact that a sizable number of the members are Osun indigenes, the celebration has, throughout the years, transformed into an occasion that attracts travelers and guests from different parts of the world.
The Role of the foreign prietess
The account of Osun Osogbo celebration is incomplete without mentioning the job of Susanne Wenger, an Austrian who strived to make the festival a worldwide celebration. From the mid 1950’s, she has given whatever is left of her life to the rebuilding of the deserted shrines. She rebuilt the divine beings in model and pottery, and made more than 75 social divine beings in artful portrayals. Wenger prevented individuals from manhandling the integrity of the forests and disallowed felling of trees there.
She later turned into a Yoruba priestess herself, with the customary title: Iwinfunmi Adunni Olorisha which literally means ‘the adored one who serves the divinity.’
She died on twelfth of January, 2009 at the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Hospital in Osogbo.
The Festival in brief
The Osun-Osogbo celebration is far from an ordinary sacrifice performed to the Osun River goddess. There are a few exercises arranged around the celebration, as tourists and guests all come to observe, communicate and share in the fourteen day long festival.
The celebration starts with Iwopopo, the customary purging of the town of evil. And then the Ina Olujumerindinlogun, a 600-year-old, 16-point light is lit after three days.
After this, is the Iboriade, where every one of the crowns of the past rulers (or Ataojas) are gathered for gift by the sitting Ataoja of Osogbo, the Arugba, the Yeye Osun, and a board of priestesses.
Finally, the ‘Arugba’ known to be the one to carry the calabash with the sacrifice, is the key figure of the Osun Osogbo celebration. She is a votary virgin, a social mimicry of the Virgin Mary, who bears the Osun calabash on her head. The calabash contains scarifice for the goddess.
Apart from the cultural rites, the Osun-Osogbo celebration has a great deal of side attractions and exercises that make the occasion a healthy affair for even first time guests and visitors. The two weeks festival includes trade fairs, and other fun exercises arranged out that make it an amazing worldwide festival.
DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE WITH YOUR EMAIL BELOW AND GET MORE OF THIS EVERYDAY
Comments