I'm a college student. I'm 19 years old and I live in Shizuoka. I'm majoring in English. I studied about Africa in one of my classes, so I chose Yoruba.
I'll introduce Tanabata. It's the star festival. First of all, I'll tell you the legend of it. Once upon a time, I don't know where they were…but a young man named Mikeran lived. He plowed a field and went to a mountain to gather firewood.
One day, he went to a mountain with friends who lived in the same village. They went into a steam to work very hard. He finished with his work early so that he went to the upper this mountain to take a rest. He found nobody there. There was a big lake. When he went into the lake, he found a beautiful dress, which was hung on the pine tree. When he took the dress, a woman appeared and said "That dress is mine, please give it back." However, he said nothing. She said, "Mikeran, do you understand? It is mine. I can't get back to heaven. It is unnecessary for human. Please give it to me." He said, "So…why are you here?" She thought if she said the truth, he would give it to me. Therefore, she said she was a woman who came from heaven, and she sometimes went down to have bath. " I am not this world's woman. I said you truth so give it back to me, please." She said it too. Then, he said to her to be a good friend and live together. She was compelled to live him.
After seven years, three children were born but she always looked for the dress. One day he went fishing, while he was away, she found the dress in a shed. She held three children and went to heaven. However, on the way to there, she dropped a child.
When he came home, nobody was in his house. He found the door of the shed open. He thought the dress must have disappeared. There was a sheet, it said "I'll tell you how to go to heaven. First, you get together a thousand pairs of "geta" (wooden Japanese clogs) and "waraji"(Japanese sandals which are made of straw). Second, you bury these things and plant bamboo where the "geta" and "waraji" are buried. After two or three years, the bamboo will have grown up to heaven. So, you can go here by it.
After two years, the bamboo reached near heaven. He went up it and could go the heaven. When he arrived there, her mother welcomed him, but her father didn't. Her father always said to him to work hard. The work was very difficult for him but everytime before his work, she taught him the knack of the work. Therefore, he worked well everytime and her father was very pleased. One day, her father said to everyone to give a crop party. On that day, Mikeran cooked melon dishes. When he cooked it, her father taught him how to cook it very kindly. He was taught to cut melon lengthways. Then, she signed "Do not cut it that way! Cut it sideways! ." However, he cut it lengthways. And then, a lot of water flooded out from the melon and he was carried away. After that, he became the star Altair and she became Vega. That water became the big river, which is named The Milky Way. And that day was June 7 so that they can meet each other only once every year.
This is the legend of Star festival. We decorate bamboo with colored strips of paper with wishes written on them. That event began at Nara in the Heian era (it's about the fifth century). They believed if they enshrined these two stars, they would begin to do well at sewing and weaving. After the Edo era (about the fifteenth century), it became customary to decorate bamboo with paper on which wishes were written.
Now In Sendai, they compete with others in decoration so that, that decoration began to be showy. They decorate with streamers. It became the biggest festival in Sendai.
Today, I will show you a part of Yoruba tribe. First, they live in south west of Nigeria. It's near of the Republic of Benin. They worked the land and traded to develop their city. By the middle of nineteenth century, various European writers reported. It was said that Yoruba had 28 towns and populations was excess of 50,000, especially these three towns which is Abekuta, Ibadan and Ilorin were estimated to contain between 6-10,000 people. It shows Yoruba is a very big tribe. Today, population is about 25 million, and 1.8 million people live in Ibadan.
Second, they have a hero; his name is Oduduwa. He came to Ife at first, and he had sixteen sons. His sons became the leader of each of the sixteen towns. They each made traditional rule. For example, one of his sons Alake was a ruler of Abekuta, so there is an interesting characteristic of the Yoruba. Usually, there is one leader of one tribe. However, in fact, there is no unitary Yoruba style. In other words, every region, town, village developed original local styles which was depend on the abilities. Today, this character has not changed.
Third, they have a close relationship to arts. It's said Yoruba constitute the largest art-producing people of West Africa. They founded urban centers which gave people great importance and power more than 1,000 years ago. They made beautiful sculpture, which is made of wood. There are many wood carvers among the Yoruba. Many these objects are placed in shrines to honor the gods and ancestors. I think they worship the 16 sons of Oduduwa and Oduduwa himself too.
I couldn’t find how they honor their ancestors and there are many things, which I want to study more, so, Yoruba is a very interesting tribe.