A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or cultures. There are a lot of festivals in GHANA and the Homowo Festival is one to cherish in our dear nation Ghana. Today we are going to look at all the traditions involved in the Homowo Festival celebrated by the Ga people in the GREATER ACCRA REGION.
Festivals in Ghana are celebrated for many reasons pertaining to a particular tribe or culture, usually having backgrounds relating to an occurrence in the history of that culture. Examples of such occurrences have been hunger, harvesting, migration, purification of either gods or stools, etc.
Homowo is a harvest festival celebrated by the Ga people of Ghana. The festival starts in the month of early June and August with the planting of crops before the rainy season starts. During the festival, they perform a dance called Kpanlogo.
The tradition of Homowo started with a period of hunger leading to famine due to failure of the seasonal rains needed by crops in the Greater Accra Region, where the Ga people predominantly dwell. When the rains returned to normal, the Ga people celebrated by creating the Homowo festival, hence its name and meaning. Homowo is greatly celebrated in all the towns in the Ga state with celebrations climaxing in Gamashie.
The celebration begins with the planting of maize, which will be used in preparing the food for the festival named Kpokpoi or Kpekple. During this period, noise making is prohibited or banned since it is believed that it disturbs the gods. The meal is eaten with Palm Nut Soup and it is also sprinkled within the town. This is normally done by traditional leaders and family heads.
Celebration includes marching down roads and streets beating drums, chanting, face painting, singing and traditional dances. Even though the celebration of Homowo is a Ga tradition, many other ethnic groups are welcomed to also join in the celebration.
The homowo festival of the Ga tribe is believed to have a lineage from the Jewish tribe and its ancestral tradition of the Jewish Passover feast.
This is one festival you shouldn’t miss in Ghana.
Content created and supplied by: Dannyupdate (via Opera News )
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