Question:
Family traditions or annual rituals you participate in.
What's special about them for you?
Of course I love my culture, it's a time of gathering together to celebrate our loved ones, our food, language and rejoice with all, I love it. That's the special thing about this celebration. The uniqueness of the culture, the people, the food, the language all are elegantly represented during this event. All these and more are the specialty about this community birthday/retirement ceremony and culture.
Awwwu..... This is it.. the moment of joy, happiness, togetherness, and a great family reunion very dear to our hearts.
A memorable and indelible times very much expected every five years, (5 years). By each and every member of the family and the village at large.
Because if nobody is celebrating in your family, your relatives, or a member of your friend's family is celebrating. You will be invited, that makes you travel and participate, it's a very amazing and an outstandingly unique celebrations filled with fun and super fun 😂😎.
Hehehe, who can actually guess what I'm talking about 🤣?.
It's our one and only Special
Community Birthday/Age grade Retirement Ceremony Organized By the Kings of each villages and their prominent cabinet members for the consigned age grades in the whole of our 27 local villages that make up the entire local government area of Ohafia.
It happens once in every other villages in every other years. Reason being that each villages has their own 65 years olds in different times and years.
Every individual at the age of 65 years old in every other five years intervals. Are required to be a celebrant at that particular date fixed for this awesome occasion.
It's quite a big ceremony. A community birthday kind of celebration to celebrate and appreciate your loved ones participating at that particular age..65 years of age from the king of each villages and his cabinets to the retiring age mates in that specific year.
They all will file out in one single line wearing a noted uniform to stand out from everyone else.
In my place, Ohafia. We appreciate and celebrate old age.
Ordinarily we are known for developing our villages and communities by ourselves. That's known as communal labour. That's by a community united labours. We don't wait for the government to build roads, open up boreholes, clean the villages, build our Bridges or even keep the security of our villages for us. 
We do these things ourselves because immediately one gets married both males and females, you search for and register with your age grade. The king in the palace with a ceremony gives you people a befitting name to your group. You start from then having some meetings and contributions for the betterment of your age grade having in mind that you all will face this community birthday/retire at exactly the age of 65 years.
We are raised to be independent minded. At every special year aloted to this special community birthday, the king and his cabinets will call on the age grade that are eligible to retire from the active services they've been rendering to the community.
Usually every first day of January of a preceding year that particular year the whole villages will be agog. Very early in the morning, your family friends, relations and loved ones will gather in your house building a kind of canopy house with George wrappers, everywhere well decorated, assorted types of food, drinks, people with different types of music and musical instruments whom you have invited by your prepared invitation cards will fill your home.
Every of your family members must return home to celebrate with you.
Remember, that very day all your age grade members both men and women will all gather at the village square. To hand over their finished projects given to them to perform by the king of the village.
The king will inturn shower blessings on the age grade as well the whole communities and the entire village. People are happily expecting this aspect of the ceremony of the day.
Dancing, eating, rejoicing and giving gifts will start wealthy celebrants that has both wealthy family members and friends will receive so much gifts of all sorts.
The celebrant will also reciprocate to his or her visitors with gifts too.
I so love it because it creates so much fun, seeing again your loved ones you have not seen for so long makes it a very desirable memorable occasion. These are the most important reasons I love and respect the community birthday / age retirement ceremony and want it to happen yearly.
which is impossible because the king and his honorable cabinet members have scheduled it once in every five years intervals.
All hivers should do well to participate in the #mayinleo prompt it's unique.
All pictures here are mine, captured with my Tecno phone camera. Thank you for your encouraging comments, you are amazing, thank you.
@ijebest.
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