EKWE JONAL

This paper presents a discussion on the Annual Mbaise New Yam Festival (NYF), a major cultural celebration celebrated annually all over the land of Mbaise of Imo State, Nigeria. This culture-rich festival celebrated by all Mbaise is held in thanks-giving to God and the ancestors of the land in appreciation of their protection, and benevolence all through the farming season. In the traditional milieus of the people, the annual NYF marks the end of the year’s planting season, which effectively ushers in the beginning of the new planting season. It is held by Mbaise communities at home, and even those in the diaspora. At home, the festival holds on the 15th of August yearly, which in the Catholic liturgical calendar is the feast day for the celebration of the feast of Assumption. The hosting of this annual festival is marked with elaborate feasting and entertainment of friends, in-laws, and relations from far and wide. It is an event which builds a strong bond of unity, brotherhood, and togetherness among the Mbaise wherever they find themselves all over the globe. Among the people, it stands out as one festival which literally concretizes the cultural cement that holds the Mbaise together, as well as defines those age-old traditional values which, in the words of authors, identify the Mbaiseness of the Mbaise in the midst of the numerous cultural communities embedded within the umbrella of the Igbo nation.

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