Overall, this entire process has helped my personal knowledge expand about my own culture, the Nigerian Culture. The research that I have done beyond my own experiences from when I lived there has allowed me to gain an updated knowledge on what celebrations and life is like out there now since I have been gone for twelve years. But one thing I can say is that the Nigeria people that I know here in the United States since I have been here in 2002, I have learned that we all still carry the same cultural values and standards. Even beyond the morals, we still live by our traditional festival spirit even though we are not present in Nigeria. The way we celebrate Christmas within our family still consists of plenty of food, music, and love for everyone in order to keep the good energy and positiveness around us. We also still celebrate funerals, though it might not be in the elaborated traditional way, we usually throw a party in a rented hall for the dead to still make sure they are sent off in peace to their afterlife. Just like most Americans excitement for NBA, NFL, and baseball games, we still all gather together to watch Nigerians play soccer whenever they have a game. No matter where we are, the Nigerian pride still continues to live in us. Since there is no place like home Nigeria is still one of the known country to live it up to the fullest regardless of challenges. From holiday celebrations, funeral gatherings, and sport event gatherings they all utilize large crowd of people coming together to eat, dance, and enjoy their life. Nigeria is a place to embrace the positives in life regardless of the hardships one might be going through. In the Nigerian culture almost any type of hyped or emphasized moment ends up being a party. We believe that crowd brings celebration.  Remember there is always something to celebrate for, you are still alive. There is that sense of being alive and surviving through the tough world that makes us feels that everything happens for a reason, so celebrate. 

Nigerian Sports: The Excitement of Soccer

What is known to be called football in Nigeria originally but is considered soccer in the United States is one of Nigerians greatest sport pride. Sporting Events like the FIFA world cup, soccer, is one of the most anticipated and celebrated moments in Nigerian sports. The importance of soccer is that it brought many people in Nigeria together; it was a way for people to escape religious differences and embrace a competitive sports spirit within one another. The history of soccer came from the Nigerian Football Federation created in 1945, “It was the first year that a competition was organized bringing together clubs from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar.” Soccer is like a ‘do or die’ sport, so everyone goes hard when Nigerian soccer team, Super Eagles, play in the FIFA world cup games.  The Super Eagles are known to be one of African’s best soccer team and top ten in the world. In fact, according to the come to Nigeria website, they won their first world cup game in 1985 in China under the 16-category and then were in second place in the 1987 in Canada. This is why soccer became something Nigerians became excited about; it turned into a holiday festival celebration every time the Super Eagles played a game. During the occasion of a big game, young adults, parents, and kids go to a large outside field to watch the game live on a screen TV. The person in town that has the biggest TV would usually bring it to the occasion. Families bring food to cook on the side, while little kids play soccer in another corner, but all around everyone is anticipated and watch the game in excitement. Almost everyone dress in the colors of the Nigerian Flag which is green and white. Some people paint their faces for the festival and some wear jerseys of their favorite player in the soccer league. There is even music played on the corners of the field where people dance to celebrate whenever the team scores a goal or during the end if the Super Eagles Win. Also with the music, there is chanting of the team’s famous chant screaming super eagles. Overall, the whole area is crowded and loud so it is always super energetic and enthusiastic.

Nigeria Funeral Celebration

Nigerian burial ceremonies continue to have its traditional practices regardless of the impact of the new modernized world we live in now. Along with old traditional practices, some of new influences in cultural and social values in Nigeria also impacts the way funerals are performed. The Nigerian culture believes that a person should be buried with the right ceremony to prevent the dead from coming back to haunt the living. “Death means joining the ancestors, and so the deceased must get a good send-off.” So instead of being sad and depressed after a funeral ceremony, we throw a party for the dead after it is respectfully and properly deceased in its grave. According to the article on Nigerian burial traditions, it states, “Families usually organize second burials to ensure the deceased has a peaceful passage to the afterlife.” Instead of just only performing one burial ceremony, Nigerians anticipate continuing celebration for positive energy and spirit. In addition, depending on what age the person died determines how large and massive the celebration should be. Nigerians believe in extravagant funerals so a lot of money and time is put into it. You could only imagine how large a funeral occasion could be for elderly who dies at the age of 80 and on. In the funeral party there many performances from singing, prayers, dancing, and praising to the family of the dead for uplift.  This ensures the people that singing and dancing will, “…improve the chances of the deceased having a successive afterlife.”In the occasion, lots of food is provided for everyone and in the food serving include goat and cow meat.   Just like every other celebrations, the sacrificing of animals occurs from the practices of old traditional culture. In the same article on Nigerian burial celebrations, it says, “…goats and other animals are slaughtered after death and during the funeral.”  On the other hand, the way funerals are celebrated in our current generations is a little different from how it is done today. Since technology has highly impact the globe heavily, off course it will at some point come into contact with the way funerals are celebrated. According to the vol 58 book called, Africa: Journal of International Africa, it explains, “Consequently the dances held during the wake-keeping's are accompanied by modern bands complete with the latest amplifying equipment, electric guitars…the mass media-radio, television and the press-have been incorporated and modern printing presses produce invitations, handbills, posters, and hundreds of passport size photographs of the deceased for the occasion.” The advancement of technology has now more than ever interfere with cultural traditions by making recording and taking data in funerals in Nigeria. This allows them to be able to record and have memory of the occasion.

Nigerian Christmas and New Years Celebration

Just like the Americans celebrate the holiday season, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are also celebrated in the Nigerian culture. In the Nigerian culture, Christmas and New Years are one of the most anticipated celebrations each year because it includes many rituals that almost everyone participates in so no one is left out. The rituals such as extending the season greetings to one another for positive and enjoyable spirit, going to the mosque or church to pray and thank God for one’s well being, exchanging gifts from one family to another with food and harvested items from the farm like yams and plantain. Christmas is also a celebration in the entire month of December, “…starts on the 1^st day of December, as that is the day When Kids begin to light up fire crackers everywhere.”  Christmas and New Year’s celebration is a little bit different from the American way of celebrating the Holidays. In America there is more focus on gifts and presents from family and loved ones. In Nigeria, people focus on rejoicing the fact that they survived through another year and give thanks to Go. To do that everyone makes sure that everyone in their surroundings is happy, there is lots of food to go around, and there is music for people to dance. A full stomach and good music means it is time to get your groove on. Not all is able to celebrate Christmas with much food, so neighborhood churches cook large meals of food to go around for those who are unable to provide for themselves. Even in the churches, they start their own party dancing and singing praises to celebrate.

Background and History of Nigerian Celebrations

The History of Nigerian festival events were all derived from old tradition practices. These traditional practices came from celebrating being alive and surviving through each day. In these local festivals sacrifices were made, cultural dancing and singing activities, and enough food for everyone to feast. Sacrifices of animals such as goat and cows were made so the meat can be cooked and distributed to everyone. It is always important for everyone in the community or the environment to embrace difference and take everyone as one. Evidently, in the book, The History of Nigeria by Toyin Falola and Matthew Heaton, it states, “…to be Nigerian is to be inheritor of a complex, multi-stranded patrimony. To be Nigerian is to have overcome adversity, to interact with many cultures, and to prosper against all odds. To be Nigerian is to appreciate difference, and fearlessly to object to injustice.” In addition, sacrificing is an important part of celebration in Nigeria. The sacrificing of animals for food represents shedding blood to thank the Gods for allowing survival to still occur. It is a form of a gift from the human nature to the Gods for existence and the survival of the living.

Another important part of celebration in Nigeria is cultural dances. In the community portal of Nigeria website called, online Nigeria, it describes, “Nigeria has many local festivals that date back to the time before the arrival of the major religions, and which are still occasions for masquerade and dance.” Dancing is a part of relieving all the stress and bad parts that occurred in the past. To relieve it, traditional dances such as masquerading evolved around all of the different tribes in Africa. The dancers fully cover their body with heavy portions of clothing with nature grown grasses or woods.

My view of Celebration as a Nigerian

After living in the United States for more than a decade now, I have come to realize that there is some sort of difference in the way some culture embrace their traditional celebrations. Being that we are all natural human beings, we are programmed to believe that festival or celebration should represent something that only brings happiness in a form of celebrating it. In Nigeria, from the teachings and practices of old folklore and history of the country, they believe that a festival should occur to celebrate anything that represents the living life. As a foreign born Nigeria, in the Benin Edo tribe, I have experienced and witnessed many different forms of Nigerian Festivals that celebrate the current situations in life from the spirit of competition to the to just a regular celebrate. Nigerians look at celebration festivities as an environment that brings happiness out of whatever situations we may come across in life. There is that sense of being alive and surviving through the tough world that makes us feels that everything happens for a reason, so why not celebrate?