Local festivals in nigeria

ARGUNGU FISHING FESTIVAL

Argungu fishing festival is a way of life for the people of Kebbi State. The
festival preserves tradition and promotes conservation. The annual festival
takes place in February and marks the end of farming season and start of
the fishing season. The festival is a four-day cultural event. Argungu fishing
festival is a way of life for the people of Kebbi State. The festival preserves
tradition and promotes conservation. The annual festival takes place in
February and marks the end of farming season and start of the fishing
season. The festival is a four-day cultural event.
The Argungu Fishing Festival or Argungu Dance Festival is an annual
four-day festival in Kebbi State and other northern states like Niger in the
north-western part of Northern Nigeria. The region is made up of fertile river
areas of (matanfada, mala with much irrigation and orchards (lambu in
Hausa). The majority of inhabitants are fishermen who are practitioners
of Isla religion. They also have Kanta Museum. The Museum is the main
historical centre in Argungu for visitors across the globe. People from
around the world travel to Argungu just to witness the occasion. The main
purpose of the Argungu fishing festival is for fishing and unity. The festival
is usually a 4-days cultural event The festival began in the year 1934, as a
mark of the end of the centuries-old hostility between the Sokoto
Caliphate and the Kebbi Kingdom. This festival has brought huge progress
to the development of the state as a whole.
It is usually called a Fishing-Frenzy Festival. The festival is celebrated to
mark the beginning of the fishing season in Argungu, a river-side town
in Kebbi State. It is celebrated between February and March every year.
In 2005, the winning fish weighed 75kg, and needed four men to hoist it
onto the scales. In 2006 the festival banned fishing due to safety concerns
relating to the low water levels. The importance of the festival to the
economy has led the government to conserve fish stock by prohibiting the
use of gill nets and cast nets. The Zauro polder project,
an irrigation scheme in the Rima River floodplain to the south of Argungu,
has been criticized because the reservoir threatens to flood the traditional
site of the festival.
Competition
On the final day of the festival, a competition is held in which
thousands of men line up along the river and at the sound of a
gunshot, all of them jump into the river and have an hour to catch
the largest fish. The winner can take home as much as $7,500 US
dollars. Competitors are only allowed to use traditional fishing
tools and many prefer to catch fish entirely by hand (a practice
also popular elsewhere and known as "noodling") to demonstrate
their prowess]. Purpose: The festival has many purposes which
include: fishing, promoting unity, fun, and entertainment.
DUBAR FESTIVAL

The Durbar festival is an annual cultural, religious and equestrian festival

celebrated in several northern cities of Nigeria
including Kano, Katsina, Gombe, Akko
Emirate, Sokoto, Zazzau, Bauchi, Bida, Lafia and Ilorin. The festival marks
the end of Ramadan and also coincides with the Muslim festivities of Eid al-
Adha and Eid al-Fitri.
It begins with prayers at dawn, followed by a colourful mounted parade of
the Emir and his retinue of horsemen, musicians, and artillerymen. At the
Durbar festivals noblemen travel to pay homage to the Emir and reaffirm
their loyalty to their various emirates.
The festival dates back to the 14th century in Kano, the largest city
in Northern Nigeria. The Kano durbar festival is a four-day extravaganza of
opulence, horsemanship, and street parades.
ORO FESTIVAL

Orò Festival is an event celebrated by towns and settlements

of Yoruba origin. It is an annual traditional festival that is of patriarchal
nature, as it is only celebrated by male descendants who are paternal
natives to the specific locations where the particular event is taking place. It
worships the god/orisha, Orò, the Yoruba deity of bullroarers and justice.
During the festival, females and non-natives stay indoors as oral
history has it that Orò must not be seen by women and non-participating
people. The ceremonies surrounding the celebration of Orò differ from town
to town, and one is often called after the death of a monarch. When the
Oba or other important official dies, a special atonement and period of
mourning are held.
Orò is usually concealed except during the festivity. Orò makes an
entrance by making high-pitched swishing sounds. This whirring sound is
said to be made by the wife called Majowu.
The Orò festival has been argued to be anti-woman by some because of
the requirement for women to stay indoors during the festival.Women must
not come outside for the full day. It is believed that if any woman comes
out, people will die.
During the festival, the voice or sound of Orò fills public spaces and private
spaces as well, in the traditional belief blessing everyone who hears it.
The Orò festival is mentioned in D.O. Fágúnwà's 1954 novel Ìrìnkèrindó
nínú Igbó Elégbèje (Expedition to the Mountain of Thought), where the
mother of Olojumajele flees into the forest because she hears the sound of
the Orò bullroarers both behind and ahead of her and is scared she might
come face-to-face with the Orò spirit. Unbeknownst to her, there is no
masquerade, just evil spirits of the forest imitating the noise of the
bullroarers.
Osun oshogbo festival

The festival of Osun Osogbo, which takes place every year in Osogbo,
Nigeria, celebrates the goddess of fertility, Osun. The festival renews the
contract between humans and the divine: Osun offers grace to the
community; in return, it vows to honor her Sacred Grove. This ceremony is
part of a rich indigenous Yoruba religious tradition that began in West
Africa and has become one of the ten largest religions in the world, with
upwards of 100 million practitioners.

Calabar CARNIVAL
Calabar Carnival is an annual carnival held in Cross River State, Nigeria.
[1]
The carnival holds every December and was declared by the then
governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke as an activity to
mark Christmas celebration yearly. He said his vision for creating the
festival was to make Cross-River a home of tourism and hospitality in
Nigeria and Africa. The quality of the festival has grown over the years
making it Nigeria's biggest carnival and an internationally recognized
festival. It used to be a month-long event that began on the 1st of
December, until the former governor of the state, Benedict Ayade reduced it
to two weeks after he was elected. During the 2017 carnival, Former
governor Benedict Ayade said in his speech that the carnival is to
showcase Africa as the richest continent and a blessed place where the
young ones should be proud to belong. The carnival has always been
entertaining and colourful as different competitions take place and huge
cash prizes are won.[2][3] Calabar which is also known by the name Canaan
City, is a city in south-eastern Nigeria. Calabar is actually the capital city of
Cross River State. Calabar sits adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa
Rivers and Falls as well as the creeks of the Cross River.

International festivals

Carnival of venice

The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an

annual festival held in Venice, Italy, famous throughout the world
for its elaborate costumes and masks. The carnival ends
on Shrove Tuesday (Martedì Grasso or Mardi Gras), which is the
day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday.
The carnival traces its origins to the Middle Ages, existing for
several centuries until it was abolished in 1797. The tradition was
revived in 1979,[1] and the modern event now attracts
approximately 3 million visitors annually.

The celebration takes place over ten days in which people dress
up and take part in organized parades or simple processions on
the street. The costumes are seventeenth-century Venetian
dresses, very much as if they were from a painting by Canaletto.
Numerous events and balls are organized during this period.

Songkran festival

Thai New Year or Songkran (Thai: เทศกาล

สงกรานต์, pronounced [tʰêːt.sā.kāːn sǒŋ.krāːn]) is the Thai New
Year's national holiday. Songkran is on 13 April every year, but the holiday
period extends from 14 to 15 April. In 2018 the Thai cabinet extended the
festival nationwide to seven days, 9–16 April, to enable citizens to travel
home for the holiday.[1] In 2019, the holiday was observed 9–16 April as 13
April fell on a Saturday.[2] The word "Songkran" comes from
the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti,[3] literally "astrological passage", meaning
transformation or change. It coincides with the rising of Aries on the
astrological chart[4] and with the New Year of many calendars of Southeast
and South Asia, in keeping with the Buddhist and Hindu Calendar. The
New Year takes place at around the same time as the new year
celebrations of many countries in South Asia like Bangladesh, China (Dai
people of Yunnan Province), India (Baisakhi in Punjab, Bengal Gajan
Utsav, Bengal Charak Utsav, Bengali New Year (Poyla
Baisakh/Nababarsha) in West Bengal and Tripura (Also Buisu/Bishu in
Tripura), Bihu in Assam,Gudipadva in Maharashtra, Pana or Mahabisuba
Sankranti in Odisha, Tamil Puthaandu (Tamil New Year) in Tamil Naadu,
Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Vishu in Kerala etc.), Laos,
Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
In Thailand, New Year is now officially celebrated 1 January. Songkran was
the official New Year until 1888, when it was switched to a fixed date of 1
April. Then in 1940, this date was shifted to 1 January. The traditional Thai
New Year Songkran was transformed into a national holiday.[5] Celebrations
are famous for the public water fights framed as ritual cleansing.

SNOW STAR FESTIVAL

The celebrations mark the start of the harvest season, when the
Pleiades, a prominent cluster of stars, return to the night sky in the
Southern Hemisphere. The festival combines Indigenous and Incan
traditions with Catholic traditions introduced by Spanish colonizers.
Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims gather in Sinakara
Valley, high in the Peruvian Andes, to celebrate Qoyllur Rit'i, or
the Snow Star Festival.

WHITE NIGHT FESTIVAL

The White Nights Festival is an annual summer festival in Saint
Petersburg celebrating its midnight twilight phenomena due to its location near
the Arctic Circle; each year between around April 22 and August 21, the skies only
reach twilight and never reach complete darkness. Organized by the Saint Petersburg
City Administration, the festival begins on June 11 with the "Stars of the White Nights"
at Mariinsky Theatre and ends on July 1. However, some performances connected to
the festival take place before and after the official dates. Numerous night-time cultural
festivals, also called White Nights, have been inspired by this.

Exit FESTIVAL
Exit (stylized in all caps; Serbian: Егзит / Egzit) is a summer music
festival which is held at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Founded in 2000, it has twice won the Best Major Festival award at
the European Festivals Awards, for 2013 and 2017. EXIT has also won the
"Best European Festival" award at the UK Festival Awards in 2007. In
March 2018 Regional Cooperation Council awarded EXIT Festival as
Champion of Regional Cooperation for 2017.