The Osun festival, also known as the Osun Osogbo Festival is held towards the rainy season, usually during the last week of August.
It is a traditional tribal festival by the Yoruba people in honor of the river goddess, Oshun who was said to have settled down in Osogbo, a town in Osun State. Thousands of people around the world attend to bear witness to the ceremonies, which include priests seeking protection for the villagers for the year to come by offering gifts and sacrifices.
The festival is held at the Osogbo Sacred Forest, and has been seen to be a tourist attraction for people across the world. The groove was once managed by a foreigner, Susan Sawyer.
What’s the History of the Osun Osogbo Festival?
The Osun festival is believed to have a history of more than 700 years. Historically, an ancestral occurrence led to the celebration of this festival.
The folklore behind the festival posits that 700 years ago when Osogbo was founded, a goddess promised to protect the people of the land and also make the women fruitful and in return there would be a seasonal sacrifice in her honor.
Further into the 1950s, a remarkable impact by the Australian born artist Susanne Sawyer is a thing of note. She was fascinated by the culture of the Yoruba people, worked closely with the priests at the time. Eventually, became a Yoruba priestess Iwinfunmi Adunni Olorisha ‘the loved one who or serves the deity.’
Today the annual sacrifice to the Osun River Goddess is what is still celebrated as the Osun, or Osun Osogbo Festival.
How is the Osun Osogbo Festival Celebrated?
The Osun Osogbo Festival is a program slated to run it’s course through two weeks. It starts with the traditional cleansing of the town called ‘Iwopopo’, which is followed in three days by the lighting of the 500-year-old sixteen-point lamp called ‘Ina Olojumerindinlogun’.
Then comes the ‘Iboriade’, an assemblage of the crowns of the past ruler, Ataojas of Osogbo, for blessings. This event is led by the sitting Ataoja of Osogbo and the Arugba, Yeye Osun and a committee of priestesses.
The festival traditionally includes a celebration of many local artistic traditions, including drumming, dancing, musical performing, wearing of elaborate costumes, speaking of the Yoruba language, recitation of praise poetry and so on.
Susanne Sawyer’s notable contribution to the August festival encompasses her zeal in picking up the important details that govern the Yoruba culture. Until her death on the 12th of January, 2009, she protected the forest and its animals from poaching and the rivers from indiscriminate fishing for sport.
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