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Odun Alowojo
Odun Alawojo is a very special festival that takes place yearly in a small town of ODA. Oda is one of many towns under Ondo State local government in Nigeria. It has a population of 10,000 people. Odun Alawojo (Festival of Gathering) is something all the local young ones in the whole town anticipate with a great deal of excitements. Many local people that that live outside the town never miss this event every year; they all come with their friends and family for the duration of the festival - 9 days.
The festival is all about make fun and ridiculing a particular family in its entirety. In Nigeria, a family is not just wife, husband and the children. A family means the whole generation of that family that are alive at that time. The chosen family will face their family internal and external affairs exposed to the whole town and visiting spectators. In most cases they pick the bad ones which could be very embarrassing and unbearable. This is the tradition and there is nothing they can do about it.
Though it’s a very interesting 9 days for most people but not for all the locals associate themselves with this traditional festival which dated back to many decades. The festival involves a lot of rituals which do not sit well with local Christians especially the grownups but for all almost all the local children and teenagers are into to this yearly festival where they get to join the crowd to celebrate what has been a cultural event for so many years.
Every evening huge number of people comprising of different age groups come together in small, medium, large groups headed by renowned comedians that are very good at making fun of people and composing different lyrics to ridicule the "chosen" family. People tend to join a group that they believe have the best humiliating lyrics which is why there are variations in the size of the groups. Each group will rally around through the streets of the whole town singing loud the ridiculing lyrics and stopping at the house of every member of the chosen family. Each family member handles this differently; some would sit outside welcoming the whole thing despite the harshness of the lyrics, some may close their doors and some may even leave the town.
On the ninth day, which is the final day, it happens during the day time from morning till about 8pm. same crusade of people of different groups rallying around the whole town during the day light repeating the same humiliating lyrics all over again. Most of the leaders of each groups reserve the best lyrics to the last day to create a more fun atmosphere for the crowd.
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