TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION

Festivals are an organized series of acts and performances. It can a[so be said to be a day or period of time set aside for feasting and celebration. It is an event ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on some unique aspect of that community and the festival.

Festivals are celebrations of important events in every human society which bring together people from all walks of life.

Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in calendar year or lunar calendar. A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Hundreds of different religious festivals are held around the world each year

We need to explain the word ‘traditional’. This word means indigenous, that which is aboriginal or foundational, handed down from generation to generation, upheld and practiced by people today. This is a heritage from the past, but treated not as a thing of the past but as that which connects the past with the present and the present with eternity. It is a religion that is practiced by living men and women.

When we speak of Traditional Religion, we mean the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of the Africans. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, and which is being practiced today in various forms and various shades and intensities by a very large number of Africans. Every locality may and does have its own local deities, its own festivals, its own name or names for the Supreme Being, but in essence the pattern is the same.

Almost invariably all festivals are celebrations of some important religious principle of theological truth.

In corroborating these views Ogunba, (1987, p. 88) opines further that:

Festivals are important for several reasons: first, they are the chief media of the religious expression of the people. Secondly the institution of the festival is in itself a giant cultural establishment which can accommodate virtually every experience of the community and mould it into its own special idiom.

Some of these festivals are no longer celebrated the way it was before, with the advent of Christianity and Islam. Yet, there is persistence in the observances of some certain festivals in spite of social change brought about by the foreign religions and modernity. Traditional religion cannot remain intact but it is by no means extinct. The declared adherents of the indigenous religion are very conservative; resisting the influence of modernism heralded by the colonial era, including the introduction of Islam, Christianity, Western education and improved medical facilities. They cherish their tradition; they worship with sincerity because their worship is quite meaningful to them; they hold tenaciously to their covenant that binds them together.

Religious celebrations and secular festivals are hardly distinguished in the life of the people. Although festival has religious significance, we do not distinguish between the worship of deities and essential social celebrations.

Features of traditional religious festivals

One of the abiding features of traditional religion is the annual festival of divinities and the veneration of ancestors. Each divinity has his or her annual festivals, which may be seen as the birthday or the occasion of some event in his or her mythology. Most feasts are observed to mark important religious and social activities in the lives of the people and these culminate in various performances, entertainment, merry-making, rites and ceremonies. The indigenous festivals, like other festivals in other religions, have their origins/sources passed down from generation to generation orally and expressed through myths and stories. These various festivals have their raison as well as their position in the traditional calendar of the people, this calendar is usually kept by dedicated priestesses who are both young and old. Awolalu and Dopamu, (2005, p.153) stated that most festivals are associated with specific divinities, spirits or ancestors and they are, therefore, religious in outlook.

Among the Yoruba, for example, each divinity has an annual festival associated with him or her and this is called Odún (festival). Odún also means year and when used in relation to festival it means an “annual festival”. This means that major festivals among the Yoruba come up every season or year. It has to do with personal and communal ritual, and it is also the most joyful and the most important social and religious activities among the people.

The chief purpose of festival is to be in the right relationship with divine powers; to attain the favour of the divinities.

The festival is an all round activity full of various ritual ceremonies, which add colour, sounds and full meaning to life. As observed by

Nirmal, (1976, p. 79).

The importance of traditional religious festival to national development

1.     Traditional festivals are observed by the adherents of the traditional religion to mark important social and cultural events in the lives of the people and these are culminated in series of performances, entertainments, rites and rituals. Through these festivals, the values and beliefs of the people are demonstrated.

2.     The festivals give meaning to the social, political and religious life of the people celebrating them.

3.     They are vital mainsprings in the traditional education and the remit of the people’s culture.

4.     Feasts and festivals are an important aspect of any religion. They serve a twofold purpose of keeping religion alive and affirming some religious or theological truth connected with them.

5.     In practice, the festival often achieves more than mere religious expression and has material that can be an important source for the reconstruction of Nigerian history once the idiom is understood.

6.     Apart from making people happy, the festivals serve some other purposes. They are occasions for moral sanctions against social and traditional authorities.

7.     Festivals through its corporate rituals help to create peace and harmony in the society, to prevent war and other social disorder. They are also catalysts for peace and unity among the people.

8.     Festivals are rituals which recur at regular intervals and which have as their purpose the expression of beliefs held by a particular community. There is also the conscious expectation that certain very specific ends will come about as a result of the performance of the festivals and the performance is motivated by the desire to gain some form of satisfaction and is expected to be effected.

9.     Festivals take place at special times set aside by a community in order to commemorate some events of historical, cultural or religious significance and by the performance of certain rituals; such events are re-enacted, giving both individuals and their communities a sense for meaning and cohesiveness.

10.                        Festivals are held in memory of the divinities to re-enact important events of the past. Oduyoye, (1983, p. 150) points out that their significance lies in the fact that they illustrate among other things, historical events, coming of age, harvesting of crops and appeasement to various gods for protection against enemies, evil or epidemic disease.

11.                        These festivals are of special importance in the collective life of the Nigerian community. It is for the benefit and good of all as a whole because people in the society are not alone but have to be in relation with others. So these festivals help to bring people together from all walks of life.

12.                        During these various festivals, they offer collective prayer for the peace of all and sundry.