₦airaland Forum

~Bluetooth:
@op
If you look through your neighbourhood and you seem to know people you started 2010 with but are no more,then you'd have cause to give thanks to God for seeing a new year.

mukina2:
I am From Sierra Leone and i'll give our ways of celebrating naming ceremony, engagement, marriage, death and charity (sara) as i remembered them

When a woman gives birth  to a boy after the 7th day its the naming ceremony. its calling 'pull na doe' or komojadeh' if its a girl its 8 days, after prayers have been done, the name of the child will be whispered into the child's ears and  a sheep would be slaughtered, the entrails are given to the mum and the name would be announced  to everyone. if the child has name sakes in the gathering, they all pay for the name to the mum.The baby's hair is cut off by the paternal aunt and kola is chewed and put in the baby's mouth.
Soon after if its a boy ,they circumcise him its called 'behtee', a guy with goat skin bag would circumcise him ( i was scared of them ) lol.

On to engagement, when a guy sees lady he likes and wants to get married to her, he and his family members would come to the girl's family with a calabash  filled with things, alligator pepper,biscuits, bitter kola, ordinary kola nut, needle and thread, pins, a mat, fanna ,plenty other  things (cant remember them now)and money for all the people who helped to bring up the girl, the people she sent on errands and so on. the calabash is given to any young girl to carry . At the wife's house, the door will be firmly shut, they will come sing and then knock three times, if its a stubborn uncle at the door, he would demand for money before opening or he would pretend he didnt hear what they are saying, when he finally opens the door, the guy's family will say that saw a rose in the compound that they want to take away for safe keeping, then different girls would be covered up and brought outside for the groom  to identify his bride, for each girl that comes out he has to drop some money  until his bride to be appears, then they do the prayers, open the calabash and explain the use.meaning/significance of each to her, then they give her the ring and she now goes around with it showing the invited guests, neighbours and everyone else around, then we party


Weddings
The bride and groom to be have to choose two respectable married people to be their God parents and God witnesses, then they choose their entire entourage, little bride, little groom. ring bearer, usherettes, ushers, bridesmaids, flower girls, page boys etc ,and they choose wax cotton or anything, each for  every group (boys side/girls side/ relatives/ god parents and god witnesses) choose their own. then they have the bachelors  eve, plenty merry making and people wear their cloths ( known as ashobee). The day of the wedding, the bride's youngest brother/daddy/uncle takes her to the mosque/church.the bride is a bridal gown and the guy in  suit/kaftan and oku wrapper  on his hand ,(for muslims), After  prayers and all that, they now go round to older relatives to drink water, after drinking water, they now head to reception/party.

for some people they add extra cultural activities like hunting, orjeh, gerafeh, and the likes to celebrate afterwards (not everyone does this)

funeral
when a muslim dies, he/she is buried as soon as possible, if you die like in the morning you;ll be buried at 2oclock or 4oclock, they will lay the body at home for relatives and friends and see and then they take the body to the mosque for prayers and then burial. If the person that died was male, his wife/wives would go to  a mourning period for 4 months and 10 days, wherein they only wear white,the first 10 days they are not allowed out of their rooms, some one would be bathing them and so on.In addition, they'll take out a book and ask for those that he/she owned or for those that should pay him or her, so that they pay up and if the deceased owed you, you would give your name plus the amount and that will be given to you from the 'kasankeh' ( the money people give to pay their respects to the deceased

when a christian dies, they wait until all the family members agree on a burial date, then they proceed to wake keeping (some do not do it though), they do laying out ceremony and then the casket is sealed and taken to church. If the person that died was very old, powder or blue would be thrown on the relatives and the casket would be danced with till the cemetery.

After the funeral.
Muslims do 3 days,7 days and 40th day charity,1 year 2 year and so on (if the person that died was old, they would cook plenty food,if the person was mid age, they would prepare snacks only, like akara,beans,  ginger beer  etc but if it was a young person they only recite the Quran and share fura/kola. Water in a glass plus some of the fura/kola is kept on a table , its believed that the deceased comes to eat and drink it  .Christians do libation for the dead on 40th day, they cook and the food is done like a sara, you grab what you can. its called kapu kapu, they also put water but with beans, akara,potato etc which is believed the deceased will come and eat it, most times the grandkids would go and thief it in  the morning the older folks would be telling stories of how they saw  and heard the deceased ( yeah right) 

will post more as i remember