Festive Periods in Nigeria: is the culture fading? Hear me out ?!
Hello, it’s me again, how are you doing? For those fasting, how is Ramadan going? Since Ramadan is still around and we recently celebrated Easter, I will be talking about the dying culture of festive periods in Nigeria.
I recently came across this, where someone was talking about how we are losing our festive period excitement.
It’s so sad that I didn’t screenshot. I just decided to write this post and I couldn’t remember the name either!
Going down the memory lane, I remember how we celebrate festive periods in Nigeria when we were much younger; the running around, the family union, the community coming together to celebrate, and all that.
Just thinking about it, I’m currently writing this with a bright smile. It is indeed a beautiful memory, from my end, a day to Ramadan, my mum will bring out our special plates, we all have our special trays in different colours and plates dedicated for Ramadan.
The preparation alone will make you look forward to it.
And for Tarawih, I can still remember the joy to join this special prayer, the way we count it, “As Salam Alaykum Wahid.”
Another beautiful thing is waking up during sahur, although I would have loved to experience waking people up, I was not allowed to do that.
But in preparation, kids will make mini drums, buy small drums, and some will use a stainless bowl to wake people up.
They will wake up as early as possible to walk around and wake others; the sound of drums, the sound of kids singing different songs like “Sari tito edide nle” and the fulfilment that comes with it.
The experience is different for everyone. Christians have their way of celebrating Easter, the excitement for Christmas, and joining their family members to celebrate.
Did we outgrow the festive periods norms?
I think we have outgrown the culture of festive periods in Nigeria, all these festive period norms, the excitement, the hustle and bustle are not like they used to be or is it me?
What went wrong? Where did fight with ram horns go? The smell of jollof rice, the sound of pounded yam and the sharing of foods have also reduced (though still around).
These are memories I will love kids to enjoy and share, but with Who?
The buying of colourful google and a faux wristwatch to do shakara for our friends, how we walk around to show off our beautiful outfits like a beauty pageant.
During festive periods, our parents will wake up early in the morning to greet our neighbours; our neighbours will come knocking, greeting us too, from different houses, the love is there!
I know some of these still exist, but you can agree with me that we are slowly losing these festive period cultures in Nigeria.
The white people are still retaining their festive periods’ norms, the Easter eggs, the trick or treat for Halloween and Santa Claus. Why are we losing ours?
Sigh! I don’t know what we can do to bring these things back but you can share and relish your festive period memories, which you love doing in the comment section.
I hope our Muslim brothers and sisters are making good use of the last 10 days of Ramadan and I hope you are getting ready for Eid.
Read my Previous post
Check out sweet deals on Jumia today.
Things are becoming more difficult in this country and everyone is just trying to survive. Also, we don’t live around family and friends anymore, as per me and my flat
True, we’re majorly not living with families anymore and things are getting difficult.
Thank you Zainab ?
Reading this alone brought back the memory. I would have love my kids to experience such too but where?. The insecurity is going out of hand, actually that’s what made us stop going around on our own as kids, unless our parents are following us we are going nowhere.
Insecurity is also a factor, who do we trust now? Thank you ?
I wish all these cultures can be retained but Nigeria keeps failing us everyday, we are all surviving instead of living, abi who will allow their kids out these days with the insecurities here and there. Grown up are not save not to talk of kids. May Almighty Allah forgive our country and bring back the joy we use to have as a child.
Ameen! You said it all, there’s insecurity, who will allow their kids play around again? ? It’s really not fair and we don’t deserve it. Thank you for coming Adedoyin ❣️
I wish all these cultures can be retained but Nigeria keeps failing us everyday, we are all surviving instead of living, abi who will allow their kids out these days with the insecurities here and there. Grown up are not save not to talk of kids. May Almighty Allah forgive our country and bring back the joy we use to have as a child..
I think one of the reasons this culture is fading is the economy…when people can’t afford the basic things to celebrate, they don’t celebrate
The inflation is another thing, everything is now expensive ?. Thank you for reading
We are being very conservative everyday in this country all in the name of “we don’t know who is who”,” human being are wicked”, “never trust anyone”, all these are statement we hear while growing up, making us to lose so much interest in socializing especially with other family member, this could be a major reason for the high level of depression in our days.
Though the world seems to be wicked in this part of the world but we just have to give TRUST a trial and grow with it.
The we don’t know who is who really affected us as a society, now look at us??. It’s really sad. Thank you for reading
I love this… Thank you!
Thank you for reading ☺️
I and my cousin also discuss this last Easter celebration. The vibe isn’t there anymore. The way we anticipate festive periods are gone. It comes like a normal period of the year now. I wish we all can change this. The family reunion during this period is totally even out of it now. Everyone stays in their houses .We no longer get to see our cousins who are far away. All we all do now is sending BC and Video call up and down. ?
You said it all, everything is fading. The excitement you prior those days are no longer there.
We don’t know more that BC now ?. Thank you Sharren ?
Lolz, you put smile on my face… yeah we outgrown festive merriment. When Ramadan approaching the enthusiasm and feelings is always different. Happiness will filled the clans with different songs ?. I remembered my grandparents alway make sure we happy with different meals and beautiful semirah plate. Competition of fasting among the kids. We lost sight to ajiwere, drumers. Those boys who do wake people up then were now yahoo boys… if u no wake early u will drink water or wake by 6 o’clock lolz ? ?. I remembered the wonderful moment, After fasting there’s sallah market at King’s market for 7 days. OMG ?.
You just put those memories in words ?, good old days ?. I’ve missed those periods, there’s nothing to worry about, just pure ecstasy! Sigh ?. Thank you for reading ?
Happy Eid
Thank you ❤️
I remember it vividly, the coming together of everyone during Christmas, how we used to look forward to that jollof rice that our parents and aunts used to cook at the family house.. How we used to take food to our neighbors with joy in our hearts…
Talking about Easter reminded me of the conversation I had with someone on Easter day, that it does not really look like a is festive going on, the ectasy of going to galilee to share food with family and friends was no longer there. I miss those period.
I think I outgrown it like you said, everyone is busy trying to survive and the fact that people that we grew up together are no longer at home makes going home during festivals boring too.
Everyone is busy trying to survive, some people don’t even go home for any festivity again. It’s so sad to see.
Thank you Oyin ?
Eid Mubarak
We all know about the society insecurity now, people are scared that is why. It is only Almighty Allah can help us refix this our memorable days
Insecurity is a major issue, thank you ☺️
I think this issue you have highlighted is not just limited to Nigeria but pretty much everywhere around the world, traditions and culture are dying out or reduced in terms of pomp and festivity like family reunions….it’s upto us to preserve as much of it and bring back the fun days of childhood fun ?
This is true, we need to do our part and preserve it. Thank you for this beautiful input ?
I agree with you, Khair. Those were good memories to have but they are fading as you said.
Yes, we need to do everything to preserve them ?