A masquerade ceremony (or masked rite,

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 ...

procession A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner. History Processions have in all peoples and at all times been a natural form of public celebration, as forming an orderly and impressive ceremony. Religious ...

or dance) is a cultural or

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

event involving the wearing of

masks A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practi ...

. In the

Dogon religion The Dogon are an ethnic group indigenous to the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa, south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, and in Burkina Faso. The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000. They speak the Dogon ...

, the traditional beliefs of the Dogon people of Mali, there are several mask dances, some of which include the ''Sigi'' festival.Adjaye, Joseph K., ''Time in the Black Experience'' (Issue 167 of Contributions in Afro-American and African studies, ),

Greenwood Publishing Group Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...

(1994), p. 92, (retrieved March 3, 2020

/ref> The Sigi entered the Guinness World Records, Guinness Book of Records as the "Longest religious ceremony."

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

, ''Sigui'' : "Longest religious ceremony

(retrieved March 13, 2020) Other examples include the

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

n and African Diaspora masquerades, such as Egungun Masquerades, Northern Edo Masquerades, the Omabe festival of

Nsukka Nsukka is a town and a Local Government Area in Enugu State, Nigeria. Nsukka shares a common border as a town with Edem, Opi (archaeological site), Ede-Oballa, and Obimo. The postal code of the area is 410001 and 410002 respectively re ...

Caribbean Carnival Caribbean Carnival is the term used in the English speaking world for a series of events, held annually throughout almost the whole year in many Caribbean islands and worldwide. The Caribbean's carnivals have several common themes, all originati ...

(which is called ''Mas''), and

Jonkonnu Junkanoo is a street parade with music, dance, and costumes with origin in many islands across the English-speaking world, English speaking West Indies, Caribbean every Boxing Day (26 December) and New Year's Day (1 January). These cultural par ...

References

External links

Maske: World's Haunting Masquerades
– slideshow by ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' magazine
Baba Alawoye.com
Baba'Awo Awoyinfa Ifaloju, showcasing Ifa using web media 2.0 (blogs, podcasting, video & photocasting) African dances Traditional African religions {{Culture-stub

See also

References

External links