The Gmayem festival also known as Mgmayem
festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...
is celebrated by the chiefs and peoples of
Shai Osudoku District
Shai Osudoku District is one of the twenty-nine districts in Greater Accra Region, Ghana. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger Dangme West District in 1988, which was created from the former Dangme District Council, until the southe ...
of
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
.
The Mgmayem festival is held annually and brings citizens of the area, both home and abroad, together to plan for ways to bring about development. The festival is also held in commemoration of the resolution of
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...
that afflicted the people centuries ago. At this time on the calendar of the traditional area, all
funerals
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
are suspended until the festival is over and urged the people to respect the arrangement and stiff punishment awaits anyone who goes against the order.
The festival is said to celebrated in October every year but changes according to their traditional calendar.
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References
Festivals in Ghana
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