Christian Festivals
Christians account for about 40% of the Nigerian population, living throughout the country but predominantly in the south. The main Christian festivals are Christmas and Easter. The way in which these holidays are celebrated often incorporates traditions from earlier religions.
Christmas is held on 25 December each year to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a public holiday in Nigeria. In Igboland, in addition to a church service and distribution of gifts the festivities may include Mmo (masquerade) dancing, where men in their twenties or thirties dress in colorful costumes and wear masks. These masquerades, which pre-date the introduction of Christianity, honor the ancestral spirits. In some areas, palm branches are hung inside and outside the houses, signs of peace and symbols of Christmas. Easter is held to commemorate the crucification of Jesus Christ on Good Friday and to celebrate his resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday. It is a public holiday in Nigeria. Easter usually occurs in April. Easter Sunday is a joyful occasion, celebrated with feasting, dancing, drumming, and sometimes with public masquerades and dancers.
Christmas and Easter may be times of heightened tension between Christians and Muslims in some areas. On Christmas Eve in 2010 at least 38 people were killed, including shoppers and church attendees. Members of the extreme Islamist sect Boko Haram were blamed for several incidents. Some reports placed the death toll as high as 80. In 2011, Easter occurred just after elections in which Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner and Christian, had been elected President. Churches were burned in some parts of northern Nigeria, and some Christians were killed in post-election violence.
Read more about this topic: Festivals In Nigeria
Famous quotes containing the words christian and/or festivals:
“One memorable addition to the old mythology is due to this era,—the Christian fable. With what pains, and tears, and blood these centuries have woven this and added it to the mythology of mankind! The new Prometheus. With what miraculous consent, and patience, and persistency has this mythus been stamped on the memory of the race! It would seem as if it were in the progress of our mythology to dethrone Jehovah, and crown Christ in his stead.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)