Good days friends of #hive. How're you all doing. Hope all is well with you and your family. Today is another special day for me as I share with you about my marital background yam festival celebration through #crossculture as piloted 
I will always be honest with you because personal life experiences of knowledge sharing matter a lot in life.
After you must have gone through what I just shared with you here, I'll be expecting your own point of view about the style you and your people use to celebrate yam and I will be expecting the post through #crossculure.
What I'm sharing with you is about the Afikpo North (Ehugbo) of Ebonyi State Nigeria. Afikpo is among the top largest and most developing cities or villages in the whole Igbo tribe in Nigeria. This village is where I attended my Nursery, primary, secondary school, and higher institution, So I know much about this village and that's the main reason why am writing about how they used to celebrate their yam.
Afikpo yam festival is highly recognized in the whole Igbo land in Nigeria because the celebration of the new yam day is like a Christmas celebration day. Most citizens of the village within and outside Nigeria used to visit the village just to have fun with other parts of the villagers.
There's always a special day fixed for these new yam celebrations. The month for the Afikpo North (Ehugbo) new yam festival is always fixed between any day of the first week of August every year.
I used to enjoy the yam festival of this village any time been in the village because it used to remind me about unity and peacemaking with other people, tribes, regions, religions, countries, and continents. One of the main aims I understood about culture in the whole world is that of peace and cultural heritage promotion.
Let me tell you something you must know because I don't know how much more you love your own culture. Culture is among the best thing I cherish most doing in life. I love my culture.
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Let me gist you a little again about the Afikpo North (Ehugbo) new yam festival based on the cola nut above. Why I decided to share with you here about the cola nut. Before there'll be a fixed and acceptable day for the yam festival, there'll be a spiritual breaking of cola-nut which is known by the villagers as Eleri Iwa Orji. Eleri Iwa Orji spiritual rites must be performed before any members of the villagers be allowed to harvest or eat their new yam which they got from the farm or any location. After the Eleri Iwa Orji is performed. Then, there'll be an acceptable date for the new yam festival and to be honest with you here. The most part of this Eleri Iwa Orji is the moment the spiritual rites are performed. It used to rain on that day which I don't know how it usually happens.
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After the Eleri Iwa Orji is performed by the most spiritually qualified citizens of this village. The men will go to their farms and start harvesting their new yams.
After the men of the land finished harvesting their new yams from the farm, Their women will now go to the farm and bring the yams back to the house using basing. Once they're carrying the yam on their head. The rest of the villagers who sees them carrying the yams on their head will start shouting (Ji anyi awafue akirikpokpo) which is also part of the festival fun. For this art, every man who're married usually makes sure he plant yam during plantation in order for people to see her wife carrying a big yam on her head.
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A night to the day for the yam festival, able men who are mostly youths of the village used to gather at night to perform their own spiritual rites for the new yam festival known as Ishu ahor (Afor). The Ishu Ahor is done through the burning of fire.
At the process of burning this fire, some of the men will light fire on a motor tire tiled with chain or rope and be waving it to the air. During this process, they will be singing a spiritual song known as Aho jee laawo. The aho jee laa means old things should go, bad things should also so go and never to return to the village. The youths believed strongly that as they are singing and the smoke from the fire the light is going to heaven. That's how the bad things are disappearing from the and.
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Then during the day of the yam festival. Those who did large farming of yams will have to take some of the yams to the market for those who didn't farm to buy from them.
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During the yam festival day, prominent men of the city used to buy some yam for the elderly women of the village who cannot afford to farm or buy from the market.
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People will have no option but to start cooking their own yam depending on how they wish to prepare it.
Let me tell you as a reader, the moment you ll' have a taste of this yam been prepared on the new yam day of Afikpo just like the one I shared with you above. The image above is a roasted yam specially prepared and another means of preparing the yam is through boiling with hot water.
Let me tell you what we used to eat our own yam in our own house, we normally use red oil mixed with crayfish, onion, pepper, salt, and other items.
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During the day of this yam festival, men and women with their friends used to go out to any relaxable place to buy themselves all kinds of fish, drink, and many others.
