Homowo: Difference between revisions
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=== Twins Yam Festival === |
=== Twins Yam Festival === |
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The Twins Yam Festival falls on the Friday following the [[Ga-Mashie|Gamashie]] Homowo celebration and before Homowo Saturday. On this day, twin Ga people wear white and celebrate with feastings, music, and dancing |
The Twins Yam Festival falls on the Friday following the [[Ga-Mashie|Gamashie]] Homowo celebration and before Homowo Saturday. On this day, twin Ga people wear white and celebrate with feastings, music, and dancing. This festival stems from the Ga belief that twins live different lives compared to their non-twins counterparts and behave differently. On this day, a pair of buffalo horns that are typically preserved in a [[shrine]] are brought out to be used for ritual ceremonies. The twins are expected to wear the same clothing, share their gifts, and react similarly in given situations. <ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Ammah |first=Charles Nii |title=Ga Homowo and other Ga-Adangme Festivals |publisher=Sedco Publishing Limited |year=1982 |location=Accra, Ghana |pages=8}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Opoku |first=A.A. |title=Festivals of Ghana |publisher=Ghana Publishing Company |year=1970 |location=Ghana |pages=52}}</ref> |
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== Celebration == |
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Traditional celebration of Homowo includes marching across cities while drumming, singling, and dancing. This celebration is further multiplied during the Gamashie Homowo celebration as the Soobii people join in. They sing songs with lyrics such as "Nmaayi eye" (the harvest is white/plentiful) to celebrate fruitful harvests. The celebration continues into the early hours of Friday when preparation for cooking has already began. <ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Ammah |first=Charles Nii |title=Ga Homowo and other Ga-Adangme Festivals |publisher=Sedco Publishing Limited |year=1982 |location=Accra, Ghana |pages=8}}</ref> |
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== Cuisine == |
== Cuisine == |
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Revision as of 09:52, 21 March 2023
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2008) |
Homowo is a harvest festival celebrated by the Ga people of Ghana in the Greater Accra Region. The festival starts in the month of August with the planting of crops (mainly maize and yam) before the rainy season starts. During the festival, they perform a dance called Kpanlogo. The Ga people celebrate Homowo in the remembrance of the famine that once happened in their history in precolonial Ghana.[1]
Etymology & Origin
The word Homowo (Homo - hunger, wo - hoot) can mean "to hoot (or jeer) at hunger" in the Ga language.[2] It is said that as the Ga people traveled to Ghana, they faced famine and other misfortunes along the way and upon settlement. The people inferred their mishaps to the displeasure of a god or deity. To restore balance in their society, the Ga people sacrificed livestock, prayed and poured libations to pacify the gods or deities, tradition that makes up Homowo today. [3]
Pre-Festival
Homowo is greatly celebrated in all the towns in the Ga state with celebrations climaxing in Gamashie. Prior to the actual celebration of the festival, Nmaadumo, a sowing rite of wheat takes place to mark the beginning of the Ga Calendar and the celebrations that occur within it. Nmaa or Millet is sown by the seven priests of the Gamashie people who perform Shibaa, the right of digging.[4]The priests sow the wheat in a specific order with Dantu on Monday, Sakumo on Tuesday, Naa Korle and Naa Afieye on Friday, Gua on Saturday, Naa Dede on Sunday, and Nai on the following Tuesday. During wheat-sowing, a strict ban on noise called "Koninfemo" is set in place. This is to ensure that the crops grow without distractions. This lasts for four weeks and two days, and at the end of this period, Specific drum beatings called "Odadaa" are played to announce the end of the noise-making ban. [4]
Timeline/Dates
The native calendar of the Ga people is provided yearly by the Damte Fetish Priest of the Damte Dsanwe people.[5] The Ga year begins either on the last Monday of April or the first or second Monday of May.[6]This period is when the Nmaadumo takes place, and marks the beginning of the Homowo season which ends in September when the crops are harvested.
A week and five days after Odadaa is played, the Twin Yam festival begins, and five weeks and four days later, the celebrations of Homowo begin. Different cities/towns celebrate their Homowo with Lante Dzanwe beginning, followed by Tema six days later. Nungua, however, begins celebrating Homowo soon after Odadaa is played on the first Sunday in July. The general Homowo celebration of the entire Gamashie (from Osu to Teshie) begins eight days after Tema, and ten days after, Nungo and Gboogbla begin their part of the festival. The last place to celebrate the festival is Awutu four days later. [7]
Soobii
Celebrators living in neighboring towns and villages are called Soobii (Thursday people) as they arrive on Thursday to join other Ga people in celebrating Homowo during the Homowo week. Once the Soobii people arrive at the city for the festival, they diverge into their localities they march together with.
Twins Yam Festival
The Twins Yam Festival falls on the Friday following the Gamashie Homowo celebration and before Homowo Saturday. On this day, twin Ga people wear white and celebrate with feastings, music, and dancing. This festival stems from the Ga belief that twins live different lives compared to their non-twins counterparts and behave differently. On this day, a pair of buffalo horns that are typically preserved in a shrine are brought out to be used for ritual ceremonies. The twins are expected to wear the same clothing, share their gifts, and react similarly in given situations. [8][9]
Celebration
Traditional celebration of Homowo includes marching across cities while drumming, singling, and dancing. This celebration is further multiplied during the Gamashie Homowo celebration as the Soobii people join in. They sing songs with lyrics such as "Nmaayi eye" (the harvest is white/plentiful) to celebrate fruitful harvests. The celebration continues into the early hours of Friday when preparation for cooking has already began. [10]
Cuisine
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. All family heads sprinkle the "kpokpoi" in their family house. Celebration includes marching down roads and streets beating drums, chanting, merrymaking face painting, singing and traditional dances. On this day there is usually a lot of traffic and roads are usually blocked off to accommodate the festival. Even though it is a Ga tradition, many other ethnic groups are welcomed to also join in the celebration.[11][citation needed]
Some of the towns that celebrate Homowo are La, Teshie, Teshie Nungua,[12] Osu, Ga-Mashie, Tema, Prampram, and Ningo(Nungo).
Gallery
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The Ga people celebrate Homowo Festival in the remembrance of the famine that once happened in their history in precolonial Ghana -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival Palm nut Soup
See also
References
- ^ "Homowo Festival". www.ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
- ^ The Library of Congress's article on Homowo. Retrieved 08 September 07
- ^ Lokko, Sophia D. (1981). "Hunger-Hooting Festival in Ghana". The Drama Review: TDR. 25 (4): 43–50. doi:10.2307/1145377. ISSN 0012-5962.
- ^ a b Ammah, Charles (1968). Ga Homowo. Accra, Ghana: Advance Accra. pp. 11–13.
- ^ Quartey-Papafio, A. B. (1920). "The Gã Homowo Festival". Journal of the Royal African Society. 19 (74): 126–134. ISSN 0368-4016.
- ^ Opoku, A.A. (1970). Festivals of Ghana. Ghana: Ghana Publishing Company. p. 52.
- ^ Ammah, Charles (1968). Ga Homowo. Accra, Ghana: Advance Accra. pp. 11–13.
- ^ Ammah, Charles Nii (1982). Ga Homowo and other Ga-Adangme Festivals. Accra, Ghana: Sedco Publishing Limited. p. 8.
- ^ Opoku, A.A. (1970). Festivals of Ghana. Ghana: Ghana Publishing Company. p. 52.
- ^ Ammah, Charles Nii (1982). Ga Homowo and other Ga-Adangme Festivals. Accra, Ghana: Sedco Publishing Limited. p. 8.
- ^ "Homowo Festival". www.ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ "Homowo: Significance of holy corn, feeding gods of Ga state". Graphic Online. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
External links
Media related to Homowo at Wikimedia Commons- Promoting and celebrating Homowo with Obo Addy
