New Yam Festival

New Yam Festival

End of June

Celebrated by almost every ethnic group in Nigeria, the New Yam Festival is observed annually at the end of June. It is considered taboo to eat the new yam before this festival. The high priest sacrifices a goat and pours its blood over a symbol representing the god of the harvest. Then the carcass is cooked and a soup is made from it, while the yams are boiled and pounded to make foofoo . After the priest has prayed for a better harvest in the coming year, he declares the feast open by eating the pounded yam and the soup. Then everyone joins in, and there is dancing, drinking, and merrymaking. After the festival is over, new yam may be eaten by anyone in the community.
Among the Igbo people, the yam crop is considered sacred, and anyone who steals yam is banished. This is because the original yam is believed to have grown out of the flesh of two children who had been sacrificed so that the other Igbo children wouldn't starve. At the New Yam Festival, each household places four or eight new yams on the ground and cuts small pieces off the head and the tail. The yams are then cooked with palm oil and chicken, and the meal is considered to be a symbolic reenactment of the original sacrifice.
Among the Yoruba people, where the New Yam Festival is known as Eje, the celebration is more elaborate. It takes place over two days and consists of purification rites, presentation rites, divining rites, and thanksgiving rites. In one divination rite, a recently harvested yam is divided into two parts. They are thrown on the ground, and if one lands face up and the other face down, this is considered a positive sign for the life of the community and the success of crops in the coming year. If both fall face down or face up, problems lie ahead.

CONTACTS:
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
3519 International Ct. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
202-986-8400; fax: 202-775-1385
www.nigeriaembassyusa.org

SOURCES:
FolkWrldHol-1999, p. 536