AMASEIKUMOR 2024: A cursory view on the traditional purification ceremony of the Gbaramatu annual festival
Humans are fallible beings whose fall, as recorded in the first Biblical Christian book of Genesis, began when the acclaimed first man and woman disobeyed their Maker and Creator of the universe, the Almighty God, in an act that led to the pollution of their physical and spiritual state of being. Ever since then, the consequences of this sinful state, which pollutes the souls of humanity in both the physical and spiritual realm, separates them from the Creator.
Hence, according to the beliefs of adherents and practitioners of the ancient Egbesu faith propelling the Amaseikumor Festival, which is celebrated annually in the Delta Ijaw Gbaramatu Kingdom situated in the Warri South-West geopolitical area of the State, there is the need for cleansing of the land (and those that dwell in it) in order to keep away curses and to instead attract manifold blessings from the Creator.
Hence, the annual Amaseikumor Festival begins with a three-day purification ceremony and dedication to the spiritual protection of the land from evil, which is the consequences reaped from the practice of engaging in acts that are not purified.
And while these period of cleansing is followed by the Ibolomobo-ere ceremony—a salutation to Woyein (Mother) the Supreme Creator—and thereafter by the Amaseikumor divinity signaling the final cleansing ceremony, this role of purification is the foundation upon which the survival of the Amaseikumor is laid upon.
Moreover, traditional believers of the faith make use of the opportunity that the cleansing ceremony offers to make confessions of their wrong doings while seeking for forgiveness from the Creator. This purification ceremony also offers worshippers the opportunity to redeem any vow made to the Creator to whom they pledge loyalty and worship. This redemption of vows may come in cash and/or kind.
Among other activities that are observed within the purification period include the offer of sacrifices as means of reparations, offer of prayers, masquerade entertainment and the offer of worship by participants denoted by dances and songs of praises in the holy temple of worship that only the undefiled are allowed entry.
Just as the Christian religious saying goes, "that the spiritual controls the physical", to the adherents of the Egbesu divinity, purification is beyond just any mere physical exercise indulged in for the main pleasure of festivity, but it is one that sets the tone for the survival of humans on the physical earthly plain. They believe that those who key into its practices will reap uncountable blessings from the Creator.
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