Introduction

Every festival have reason to celebrate it. It usually a enjoyable event where the history and reasons of the festival are shared for younger generations. Depending on the agreement or happening, it can hold annually or biannually when concerned people gather together in unity for such celebration. Let me shared with you, one of the greatest festivals hosted by my family for generations.

"Isi-Onu" is the name of that festival and it's name means "the beginning of happiness". It is an Annual Celebration that unite every "Ukaegbu" families worldwide. It is a generational festival where our forefather "Ukaegbu" used to give glory to God for his love, protection and provision towards us.

Every December 21st, everyone in our family ties will be present for the celebration. Our uncles, aunties, mothers, fathers, in-laws and friends congregate together in peace for such celebration. That day, our ancestral home is the beehive of various activities to mark that day and event. Under our big mango tree, we will sweep and keep it clean for such activities.

During the event which is hosted by the eldest male of our family will start with prayers and libations to our loved ones that have depart this sinful world. Our eldest male now our father engage in ancestral worship where our forefathers are pleased and requested for their continuous provisions and protection. He narrated our history and journey so far. Ukaegbu was a brave hunter and farmer that's very successful in his gaming and farming. There's a display of bones and carcasses of great and mighty animals that attack us but was defeated and killed by that great man. He inherited large acres of fertile lands and water on which his large family depends on. His fame among his compatriots earn him chieftaincy title. He made a good name for us till now.

Apart from the historical facts about our family be narrated, other events like marriage rites, burial and land disputes are discussed for everlasting peace and unity in our family. Money launching are held for further developments and maintenance of our assets. Everyone pledge certain amount of money to be contributed for any proposed communal projects like roads, pipe borne water, electricity etc for better lifestyle and sustainability.

However, we enjoy ourselves with good foods, drinks and assorted meats. There's divisions of labor to get things done properly. A night before the day, every lady including our mothers, sisters and sister in-law gather themselves for the preparation of such delicacies. Food items are provided in large quantities for the food production. Young man fetch water from the stream to fill every empty water containers for the domestic uses. Mature man arrange the venue and process the meat for the uses. The cooking is monitored by the eldest female, who we respect a lot.

We dress very magnificent with our traditional attires and wrapper. We adorn ourselves with great and expensive pearls while gracing the occasion. Everyone looks very good and happy as we dance around for the goodness of God in our lives. Our invited guests usually shocked for how colorful this festival be and look forward for the next one. We even engage in other form of activities like exercising and hill climbing. We move in groups to climb our hilly lands to know and understand the boundaries.

Finally

Isi-Onu Festival is one of the events that worth celebration. It's Significances acts as our reminder of God's blessings towards us. We use the opportunity to know each other well and develop our land too. We enjoy ourselves for longevity and prosperity.
Thanks to @leogrowth for this month prompts which have really helped us to be active. This article is based on such prompt under this tag #mayinleo and publish in this wonderful community