The festival is called ODUN MOKO. It happens once in a year in Ondo town. During the celebration of the festival, women across all age grades are banned from coming out in the morning of its celebration till evening when it would come to an end. It was another boring odúnmokò day.
As a child, I was told that if you go out, you won't be able to conceive when the time comes. My grandma even told me that in the olden days, no cooking of food or any other activities by the women. My mom would even tell me not to look into the mirror or step my foot outside.... she would make sure I had fetched whatever water I was going to use the day before. I guess the festival was really strict during my days in secondary school. I once read that the 'Lisa' of Ondo said that this festival is not meant to punish the womenfolk, but it is done in line with the age-long tradition and culture of the people of the community.
It is on this day that we all know the importance of women in the Society because the town is always quiet like a grave yard. It is only the sound of little boys playing football on the street that you can hear in the corner of the room or the sounds of men walking on the street. As a student staying off-campus,the odúnmokò festival is an holiday for me because I was opportuned to sleep well without dreaming of any classes and due to the fact that I stay in school,my mom had called me on Monday to warn me not to step out of the house the next day on this particular festival day😁 but we still have to go out to fetch water now🙊.
The most surprising thing is that on Monday evening, almost all ladies in the hostel and off-campus came out to get food stuffs and most especially pepper and tomatoes, even elderly women were not left out. This is because females would not be allowed to come out the next day. My neighbors and I started with the cooking process after brushing our teeth,all thanks to NEPA men o that decided to turn on the light o. we even had to take turns cooking on the hot plate and in no time,we were done... It was boring as there was no chance to go to school to read and many more. The boredom also turned to anger as I could not concentrate on reading because my neighbors were disturbing all in the name of gisting and the people living downstairs were playing an MP3 loudly 🙄. I had to go into my room and ate my remaining food o.
Have you ever imagined a world without women in it? definitely not interesting right.... yesterday proved me right because the world was more quiet than a graveyard... we are actually loving and funny right? I later went to church in the evening around six forty for Bible study and it was eye-opening. It was a teaching on PROPHETIC SEASONS and there,we were taught that “prophecies do not guarantee a challenge-free life,but it prepares one for the time to come. A prophetic season is a season where God speak His mind to His people.
And this was how I spent my time judiciously on odúnmokò festival...
Thank You all for reading through🙏
Olamiposi 😘😘🥰