HOW NEW YEAR CALENDAR INFLUENCED IJEBU HISTORY!

by Dr. Saint
Jan. 1st, 2023

The origin of New Years' celebration dates back to 2000 B.C in Mesopotamia. This first day of new calendar Year has over time turned to a tradition of festival prominently celebrated in most countries of the world.

Around 800 BC, a new calendar consisting of 304 days was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, and this calendar had just 10 months, beginning with March 1st as the first day of the year.

Years after, a new revolution sparked in 59 BCE, the year Julius Caesar vied for the consular elections at age 41 in Rome with which he won. Julius Caesar was a political and military genius who overthrew Rome’s political order and replaced it with a dictatorship. As part of his social reform, Julius Caesar instituted order and moved the beginning of the year from March 1 to January1.

Resulting from his new order, in 45 B.C., a calendar consisting of twelve months took effect with January 1 as first day of the year. This calendar employed a cycle of 365 days, followed by a year of 366 days (leap year). But unfortunately, Julius Caesar was later assassinated in 44 BCE. And, from 44 BCE to 31 BCE, the assassination of Julius Caesar torn the Roman world apart and resulted to the Battle of Actium, the civil war that spanned up to 13 years. This war, historically, instigated the first Itsekiri people migration to their present area in today’s Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Church didn’t like the idea of the New Year being celebrated on January 1st, so they played around with the dates a little. At first, they changed the start of the year to 25th of December. When later decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25th, the New Year changed to March 25th. Hence, the church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336 AD.

Eventually, Pope Gregory XIII, during his reign, realized that there was nothing wrong with the old way of celebrating New Year, so he changed the date back to the 1st of January in 1582 AD. As a result, it was later named after him to become Gregorian Calendar, and was adopted mainly by countries under Roman Catholic rule, including Spain, Portugal and France.

Contrary to the above, the primordial Jebu kingdom in today’s Nigeria was attributed to the Ethiopian calendar, a tradition of the celebration of New Year on September 11, before the arrival of Portuguese explorers who conveyed the January 1st tradition to West Africa. Premised on the fact that the progenitors of the primordial Ijebu were of Ethiopia origin, they migrated with Ethiopian culture and tradition.

Ethiopian New Year is celebrated on 11 September. As a Land of Origins, a cradle of human beings, Ethiopia is one of the few ancient civilizations in the world with their own alphabets and calendar. One of the reasons why Ethiopia celebrates its New Year during this month is a belief that the number of daylight hours and nighttime hours happens to be exactly equal around the globe once every September, with belief that the creation of the Heavens and the Earth took place in September. Thereafter, Ethiopia chose September 11 to celebrate the beginning of a new year on the fact to immortalize the date Queen of Sheba return from Solomon.

According to Ethiopian tradition, on 11 September around 980 BCE, Queen of Sheba (Makeda in Ethiopian) returned to Ethiopia from her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem. Her followers celebrated her return by giving her jewels. The day of her return was nationalized to become the first day of Ethiopian calendar, which they observe till date.

Years later after the child bore to Solomon returned from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, Queen of Sheba abdicated the throne and handed over the rulership authority to her Son, the act that instigated her sojourn into exile, which oral tradition and archaeological researches asserted she later founded a new kingdom described to be the first Ijebu Kingdom in today’s Nigeria.

Later, Prince Orlua (corrupted to OLU-IWA) the Son of King Agabu arrived after Makeda’s demise had collapsed the primordial kingdom, and he constituted a new kingdom that his heir, Awujale, rules over till date. Reason it is referenced in Ijebu eulogy as, *“Jebu Esen Orlua”* (corrupted to Ijebu Ereluwa) meaning Ijebu the descendant of Orlua (Olu-Iwa).

After the demise of Queen of Sheba in around 8th BCE, the Jebus in today’s Nigeria were used to celebrating New Year in September. It became the tradition for Awujale to lead others to usher New Year prayers at Queen of Sheba’s tomb in Oke Eri.

This September tradition was consistently practiced until later usurped by the influence of the Portuguese to adopt Gregorian calendar in 18th century AD. Portuguese voyages to the coast of West Africa introduced a lot of civilization and social reform amongst which include education and religion.

According to the legend, the tradition of Awujale performing yearly prayer for Ijebuland at the tomb of Queen of Sheba in Oke Eri, initially in September and later in January, succeeded up till the reign of Awujale Adesanya before the it was later aborted, especially when the civilization began to set in and Gregorian calendar became the order of the day from the Missionaries.

Hope you are blessed with this article….. *HAPPY NEW YEAR*

Proudly Ijebu.
Dr.Saint.com

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02ksZWdKGLRRJTfVjv8XQesTw9Vpz3EWxiiDW5cq4FDj3ta5x2W16x9aYJiAJM53K3l&id=100004031644592

The true fact

Freegift75:
HOW NEW YEAR CALENDAR INFLUENCED IJEBU HISTORY!

by Dr. Saint
Jan. 1st, 2023

The origin of New Years' celebration dates back to 2000 B.C in Mesopotamia. This first day of new calendar Year has over time turned to a tradition of festival prominently celebrated in most countries of the world.

Around 800 BC, a new calendar consisting of 304 days was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, and this calendar had just 10 months, beginning with March 1st as the first day of the year.

Years after, a new revolution sparked in 59 BCE, the year Julius Caesar vied for the consular elections at age 41 in Rome with which he won. Julius Caesar was a political and military genius who overthrew Rome’s political order and replaced it with a dictatorship. As part of his social reform, Julius Caesar instituted order and moved the beginning of the year from March 1 to January1.

Resulting from his new order, in 45 B.C., a calendar consisting of twelve months took effect with January 1 as first day of the year. This calendar employed a cycle of 365 days, followed by a year of 366 days (leap year). But unfortunately, Julius Caesar was later assassinated in 44 BCE. And, from 44 BCE to 31 BCE, the assassination of Julius Caesar torn the Roman world apart and resulted to the Battle of Actium, the civil war that spanned up to 13 years. This war, historically, instigated the first Itsekiri people migration to their present area in today’s Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Church didn’t like the idea of the New Year being celebrated on January 1st, so they played around with the dates a little. At first, they changed the start of the year to 25th of December. When later decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25th, the New Year changed to March 25th. Hence, the church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336 AD.

Eventually, Pope Gregory XIII, during his reign, realized that there was nothing wrong with the old way of celebrating New Year, so he changed the date back to the 1st of January in 1582 AD. As a result, it was later named after him to become Gregorian Calendar, and was adopted mainly by countries under Roman Catholic rule, including Spain, Portugal and France.

Contrary to the above, the primordial Jebu kingdom in today’s Nigeria was attributed to the Ethiopian calendar, a tradition of the celebration of New Year on September 11, before the arrival of Portuguese explorers who conveyed the January 1st tradition to West Africa. Premised on the fact that the progenitors of the primordial Ijebu were of Ethiopia origin, they migrated with Ethiopian culture and tradition.

Ethiopian New Year is celebrated on 11 September. As a Land of Origins, a cradle of human beings, Ethiopia is one of the few ancient civilizations in the world with their own alphabets and calendar. One of the reasons why Ethiopia celebrates its New Year during this month is a belief that the number of daylight hours and nighttime hours happens to be exactly equal around the globe once every September, with belief that the creation of the Heavens and the Earth took place in September. Thereafter, Ethiopia chose September 11 to celebrate the beginning of a new year on the fact to immortalize the date Queen of Sheba return from Solomon.

According to Ethiopian tradition, on 11 September around 980 BCE, Queen of Sheba (Makeda in Ethiopian) returned to Ethiopia from her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem. Her followers celebrated her return by giving her jewels. The day of her return was nationalized to become the first day of Ethiopian calendar, which they observe till date.

Years later after the child bore to Solomon returned from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, Queen of Sheba abdicated the throne and handed over the rulership authority to her Son, the act that instigated her sojourn into exile, which oral tradition and archaeological researches asserted she later founded a new kingdom described to be the first Ijebu Kingdom in today’s Nigeria.

Later, Prince Orlua (corrupted to OLU-IWA) the Son of King Agabu arrived after Makeda’s demise had collapsed the primordial kingdom, and he constituted a new kingdom that his heir, Awujale, rules over till date. Reason it is referenced in Ijebu eulogy as, *“Jebu Esen Orlua”* (corrupted to Ijebu Ereluwa) meaning Ijebu the descendant of Orlua (Olu-Iwa).

After the demise of Queen of Sheba in around 8th BCE, the Jebus in today’s Nigeria were used to celebrating New Year in September. It became the tradition for Awujale to lead others to usher New Year prayers at Queen of Sheba’s tomb in Oke Eri.

This September tradition was consistently practiced until later usurped by the influence of the Portuguese to adopt Gregorian calendar in 18th century AD. Portuguese voyages to the coast of West Africa introduced a lot of civilization and social reform amongst which include education and religion.

According to the legend, the tradition of Awujale performing yearly prayer for Ijebuland at the tomb of Queen of Sheba in Oke Eri, initially in September and later in January, succeeded up till the reign of Awujale Adesanya before the it was later aborted, especially when the civilization began to set in and Gregorian calendar became the order of the day from the Missionaries.

Hope you are blessed with this article….. *HAPPY NEW YEAR*

Proudly Ijebu.
Dr.Saint.com

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02ksZWdKGLRRJTfVjv8XQesTw9Vpz3EWxiiDW5cq4FDj3ta5x2W16x9aYJiAJM53K3l&id=100004031644592