By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The Osun Osogbo festival kicked off on Monday amidst pomp and pageantry with the traditional cleansing of the city of Osogbo called ‘Iwopopo” to mark the official commencement of the 2021 edition of the annual sacrifice to celebrate the Osun River goddess.
The Ataoja of Osogbo, His Royal Majesty Oba Jimoh Oyetunji, Olaonipekun Larooye II, led the Osogbo Cultural Heritage Council, traditional chiefs, worshippers, devotees, government officials and residents of Osogbo in a symbolic cleansing of the city in a march through designated routes after which different age and social groups, communities and titled chiefs paid homage to the king seated in the centre of town.
A statement by Toye Arulogun, Managing Consultant, Osun Osogbo festival, said the occasion, which witnessed drumming, singing and dancing, brought the city of Osogbo to a halt for hours as residents trooped out to celebrate the flag-off of the biggest annual religious festival among the Yoruba race.
“Other key activities to mark this year’s Osun Osogbo Festival include the lighting of the 500-year-old sixteen-point lamp called ‘Ina Olojumerindinlogun’ slated for Thursday, August 5, ‘Iboriade’, a unique assemblage and display of the crowns of the past Ataojas of Osogbo, for blessings, which will come up on August 9,” the statement said.
The grand finale of the festival, which is being live streamed for the local and international audience of Osogbo indigenes, Osun devotees, worshippers and Yoruba culture enthusiasts in diaspora, comes up on Friday, August 13 and it is the sacrificial offering by “Arugba” at the Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.