Five southwestern states in Nigeria including Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital have declared today as a holiday, that is, work-free to mark Isese Day, a traditional Yoruba festival celebrated on August 20, every year. The other states are Ekiti, Ogun, Osun and Oyo.
This draws attention to the need to preserve cultural heritages and the inevitable marriage between culture and education. It also promotes religious tolerance. The Isese Day has been set aside to celebrate the indigenous Yoruba culture and traditions as well as the preservation of the Yoruba heritage.
Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam have big festive days that are declared holidays. Holidays are work-free days. Let us do a little linguistic analysis before we return to Isese Day and the holiday that has come with it.
The term holiday originated in the 1500s, or earlier as haliday (c. 1200), from Old English haligdæg “holy day, consecrated day, religious anniversary; Sabbath,” from halig “holy” + dæg “day”; in 14c. meaning both “religious festival” and “day of exemption from labour and recreation,” but pronunciation and sense diverged 16c. As an adjective mid-15c. Happy holidays is from mid-19c., in British English, with reference to summer vacation from school. As a Christmastime greeting, by 1937, American English, in Camel cigarette ads.
This brief etymology of the term holiday points to at least two things. One, the human psyche realises itself through symbolism, both religious and cultural. Second, traditional African religion practitioners have been marginalised and the Isese Day rectifies this to some extent.
Muslims celebrate various feasts attached to the life and times of Prophet Mohammed all around the world yearly, and Christians celebrate also feasts associated with the life and times of Jesus Christ, Isese Day highlights an ancient Yoruba festival celebrated in many countries around the world which has only recently received government approval. Isese Day was first declared as a public holiday by the Osun State government in Nigeria, in 2014. Isese Day celebrates Yoruba traditions and religion by displaying culture and spirituality.
Isese, the Yoruba word for tradition, is also used to denote different kinds of festivals held by adherents of the Yoruba traditional religion or culture. Isese is a worldwide celebration. It is celebrated across the globe, in 54 countries such as Benin Republic, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua, Argentina and some European countries and in the United States of America.
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Facts about Isese
The Yoruba ethnic group comprises around 35 per cent of Nigeria’s total population, with approximately 40 million Yoruba individuals residing in the West African region. They are a prominent ethnolinguistic community in Africa, primarily communicating in the Yoruba language.
The Yoruba people engage in numerous Isese festivals, some of which are Eyo, Igogo, Ojude Oba, Olojo, Oro, and Sango festivals.
A key tradition during these celebrations involves presenting offerings to deities such as Obatala, Sango, Ogun, Sankpanna, and Esu, which hold special significance within Yoruba culture.
These offerings are often overseen by an Olu-Awo, who is a chief priest or priestess empowered by Ifa or Orunmila, a mystical figure associated with wisdom and intellectual growth, to guide the spiritual aspects of the festivities.
Isese Day is an official public holiday in Nigerian states like Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Kwara, Edo, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, and Kogi. This holiday aims to foster a sense of identity among adherents of traditional religions.
Isese Day typically falls on August 20 each year in Osun and serves as a day for practitioners of Yoruba traditional religion to celebrate their revered deities.
This religious tradition falls under the umbrella of the Ancient Religion Societies of African Descendants International Council.
During these festivals, individuals engage in prayer, dance, and the offering of sacrifices, often involving animals like cows, goats, dogs, and birds. The choice of venue for these rituals depends on the specific deity being honoured – Osun’s sacrifices are made at the river, while Oro’s are conducted at shrines.
Adherents to these festivals commonly wear attire in shades of white, red, and black, reflecting the traditional colours associated with the celebrations.
African Traditional Religion, Culture and Education
Like the majority of historic religions around the world, traditional African religion was founded on oral traditions. These customs are not religious doctrines but rather a cultural identity that is transmitted from one generation to the next through stories, myths, and tales.
The environment, together with one’s family and community, is crucial to one’s personal life. The followers trust in the guidance of the spirit of their forefathers. There are several types of priests and spiritual leaders in various traditional African religions.
Native African religions (unlike the later formed idea of faith) are centred on ancestor worship, the belief in a spirit world, supernatural creatures, and free will. In the afterlife, living humans, animals, and significant things still have power over or can interact with the physical world. Prior to the emergence of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, polytheism was practised in many parts of ancient Africa and other parts of the world.
African traditional religion is primarily focused on the human being and his or her life in this world, with the consequence that religion is clearly functional, or a means to serve people to acquire earthly goods (life, health, fecundity, wealth, power, and the like), as well as to maintain social cohesion and order.
In traditional African society, religion, traditions and culture are vehicles for character formation, hence a means of education through which members of the society become well-adapted. It gives meaning to life, forges identity, and regulates social life.
Preserving culture and its heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artefacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.
Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artefacts). It also includes intangible cultural traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe.
It is also the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity). Whatever shape they take, these things form part of a heritage, and this heritage requires an active effort on our part in order to safeguard it.
Culture and its heritage reflect and shape values, beliefs, and aspirations, thereby defining a people’s national identity. It is important to preserve our cultural heritage because it keeps our integrity as a people.
The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a country and is as important for developing countries as for developed ones.
