This year Summer in Nigeria- LOH CONTEST #187

Good day everyone, welcome to my blog and it's sunny here in Lagos Nigeria today. I want to appreciate the organizers of the ladies of hive contest for the wonderful topics that allows us to connect more as a family by sharing what exist in different culture across different countries. Going through people's responses makes me learn more within the four walls of my room. Most times I laugh alone while reading people's post. To the business of the day, I will like to write on the first question asked:
"Memorial Day in the US is remembering the military service men and women who gave their lives in service to the country. It is also the weekend that is typically thought of as the kick off of summer. How do you celebrate it, or does your country have a special celebration this time of year as well? If so, how do you celebrate?"

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Here in Nigeria we celebrate our falling heroes on 15th of January every year. Although most people are not aware because it is just like the normal day. All daily activities continues unlike democracy day that we observe a day holiday to celebrate it.
The families affected will be honoured and it will be on record. They celebrate it more in The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. A group of military men organize a match pass with blowing of trumpets. The president give speech and donations are made to help the widows, widowers and the children of the deceased.
The popular ones among the falling heroes will be mentioned and their pictures will be displayed. All across the country the Nigeria flag will be lowered in every military barracks to show a sign of mourning.
As we approach summer, there are two major celebrations that we will observe in Nigeria. The first one is Democracy day and id-el-kabir.

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We do celebrate the Democracy day on 12th of June every year. This day is a public holiday across the country. It is a day that serve as a memorial of how the country moved from military rule to democratic rule. We celebrate a major gem that fought for democracy, late Sir M.K.O Abiola and others. On Television, you see different programmes educating us about the history of Nigeria, some TV stations will show the stories of our past presidents just to make us remember where we were coming from and to educate the younger generation about our past travails.

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The second celebration is something I always look forward to which is the Id-el-kabir. The government always declare two days holiday to celebrate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son. This is actually a Muslim festival but I do join them even though I'm not a Muslim. My philosophy about life is "celebrate with them that celebrate and weep with them that weep".
When things were not as expensive as what is in existence now, most Muslim households do kill ram and share food to people in their neighborhood. When I was small I will move from house to house to eat "ileya meat" Ileya is a Yoruba word that means " Time to go home". During this period most people travel to their villages to celebrate with their love ones. It serve as a means of making our children know their origin and bonding with other families.
Last year, my students that travelled to their villages brought fried meat for me. It is a season of wining and dining. This year we will observe this festival on 17th and 18th of June, this date is not fixed but the celebration is yearly. I really hope it will be glorious like the past ones because thing are extremely expensive that it is now difficult to afford two meal a day. On this special day all the Muslim families will gather in an open space area in every community very early in the morning to pray. The Yorubas do call the place "Yidi". This is not their regular mosques prayer. It is once in a year prayer. Most families buy new dresses, sing in groups while they move around the village and give alms on this special day.
I pray things will be better this year so that I can get plenty meat. Welcome to summer.
God bless Nigeria.
God bless Africa,
God bless ladies of hive.
God bless all the nations of the world.