The most popular festivals in Nigeria, are really interesting events when it comes to cultural displays and attractions, but in recent days most festivals in the country are not held due to some states and government funding.
However, Glass Suite brings you the most popular festivals in Nigeria as it is one of the important cultural advantages of the country.
Top 10 Most Popular Festivals in Nigeria
Durbar Festival
Most popular festivals in Nigeria, The ancient and prominent festival in Nigeria is the Durbar festival which is an annual festival celebrated in some northern cities of Nigeria.
Durbar festival takes us to a time when the states in the north used horses in wars in which emirate military chiefs invited the various regiments for the emir and his chiefs intended to mark the advent of a war between ancient kingdoms or regarded as a form of the military parade to the emirs and their chiefs.
During the parade, regiments would display their horsemanship, their preparedness for war, fighters who defended the territories, and their loyalty to the Emirate.
Calabar Carnival
The Calabar Carnival is presumed to be the largest carnival in Nigeria popularly known as Nigeria’s biggest street party.
One of the most popular festivals in Nigeria is the Calabar carnival it is highly costumed to reflect the cultural heritage of the people.
This celebration of creativity and culture blends with both the traditional and modern lifestyles of the people of Cross River State.
Traditional titleholders and worthy illustrious sons and daughters always partake in the carnival.
The Obong, his cabinet members, and other traditional titleholders dress in their traditional regalia to reflect on the cultural carnival. Calabar cultural carnival is open to everyone, it is also for all lovers of the cultural carnival.
Opobo Regatta Festival
The most popular festival in Nigeria, the Opobo boat regatta is an annual festival, held in the famous Bonny Island in Rivers State. The festival is held every New Year’s Eve.
The festival consists of ritual sacrifices before the boat racing competition starts. Enthusiastic men rowing hard competing for the first position, crowd cheering, masquerades display to spectators, indigenes, and visitors filled with aesthetics, colors, and sea breeze.
Osun Oshogbo Festival
A cultural and spiritual festival is held annually in Osun State. The Osun-Oshogbo festival was held between the months of July and August at the Sacred Osun grove the last of the sacred forests as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in honor of the river goddess, Oshun of Osun State.
The event lasts for two weeks it’s a celebration, traditional cleansing of the city, and cultural reunion of the people with their ancestors and founders of the Osogbo Kingdom.
Thousands of Osun worshippers and tourists from all over the world come to join in on the festivities. At the initial stage, there is a traditional cleansing of the land known as Iwopopo.
Thereafter, the lighting of the 500-year-old sixteen-point lamp ‘Ina Olojumerindinlogun’ three days and finally the ‘Ibroriade’, an assemblage of the crowns of past rulers, Ataojas of Osogbo, for blessings.
Carniriv Festival
The most popular festivals in Nigeria is the Rivers state Carniriv is an annual festival, held in Port Harcourt, it is the oldest carnival in Nigeria, following its inception in 1988.
The cultural diversity and collective heritage of the local people in Rivers State are firmly rooted at the core of tourism.
This heritage, as luxurious as it is diverse, is a fine collection of the customs and cultural practices of the various ethnicities making up Rivers State.
The Carnival starts a few weeks before Christmas and lasts for seven days combining two carnivals; a contemporary Caribbean-style carnival and a cultural carnival turning the ‘Garden City’ into a very colorful destination.
However, since the governor-elect assumed office the Rivers state Carniriv has been stopped for some reason.
Eyo Festival
The Eyo festival is a stunning white clamorous event, one of the unique festivals in Nigeria. Most people believe that the Eyo festival is a forerunner of the world’s biggest carnival, the Rio de Janeiro Carnival.
The festival is a 24-day event that sweeps through the entire city with a focus on Lagos Island and paying homage to the Oba of Lagos.
It attracts a large number of tourists from around the world who come to see costumed dancers or masquerades called Eyo.
Argungu Fishing Festival
Arugungu festival is a fishing festival with an origin traced to when the late Sultan Dan Mu’azu in 1934 was honored with a similar festival.
The most popular festivals in Nigeria, the Argungu Fishing Festival has been around for quite some time but stopped in 2009.
The festival was kicked off again some years after by the State government adding polo tournaments to the event, the festival is very popular in Kebbi and Sokoto state areas.
Ofala Festival
The Ofala festival is an annual ceremony very popular and practiced by the indigenes of Onitsha and other neighboring Igbo communities such as Nnewi in Anambra State, Nigeria.
The most popular festivals in Nigeria, the Ofala serves as a rite of renewal of the King celebrated annually beginning from the coronation of Obi to his death, the latter of which is called the last Ofala.
The festival marks the end of a period of retreat sometimes called Nlo when Inye Ukwu an. The King is unable to communicate with anyone and undergoes spiritual purification for the good of the community.
Sango Festival
The most popular festivals in Nigeria, Sango Festival is an annual festival held among the Yoruba people in honor of Sango, a clap of thunder and fire deity who was a warrior and the third king of the Oyo Empire after succeeding Ajaka, his elder brother.
Most popular festivals in Nigeria this festival is usually held in August at the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo and is also observed in over forty countries around the world like Benin Republic, Brazil, and Cuba amongst many others.
The New Yam Festival
The new yam festival is an extremely popular festival in Nigeria, it’s an annual cultural festival by the Igbo people held at the end of the rainy season in August.
The most popular festivals in Nigeria, the New yam festival symbolizes the end of the cultivation season and the beginning of the next work cycle.
The celebration is a very cultural occasion, tying individual Igbo communities together as essentially agrarian and dependent on yam farming.
