Bulu Festival

Bulu Festival

June

To the Dogon people who live in southeastern Mali in West Africa, bulu means "rejuvenate." It celebrates the beginning of the planting season. The festival continues for six days during which people ritually renew the life of the community with visits, feasts, and tying up any loose ends amongst each other, as well as their connection with the spiritual realm by offering sacrifices and creating new paintings for sanctuaries. The main communal ritual takes place at the house of the hogan, the most powerful priest in the community. Using millet grain saved from the previous year's crop, he enacts a ceremonial planting of grain for the current season in order to encourage a good crop.

CONTACTS:
Mali Embassy
2130 R St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
202-332-2249; fax: 202-332-6603
www.maliembassy.us

SOURCES:
EncyRel-1987, vol. 4, p. 394

Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary, Fourth Edition. © 2010 by Omnigraphics, Inc.