Yesterday, August 16, at midnight in Koso a new year began for the followers of Shango (S\u00e0ng\u00f3), Orisha Yoruba of fire and thunder. The New Year celebration is part of the S\u00e0ng\u00f3 World Festival that has been taking place in Oyo since Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new year started when the Mogba Koso (the supreme chief of Koso and guardian of the sacred sanctuary of S\u00e0ng\u00f3) performed one of the most sacred rituals of this Orisha: to make an offering with new yam to S\u00e0ng\u00f3 Koso. From there, all the followers of Shango who gathered in Koso to celebrate the new year began to eat yam from the new harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thousands of people who joined the celebration, in addition to eating yams, went from venue to venue in Koso singing to Shango (S\u00e0ng\u00f3) with the Bata drums, and singing an oriki for all the Alaafin of the past, as the maximum representation of S\u00e0ng\u00f3 in Oyo since time immemorial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason that the New Year in Oyo is celebrated in August is due to the traditional Yoruba calendar. Unlike the Western calendar that has been in force since the end of the 16th century and that has spread almost throughout the world, for the Yoruba a year lasts 13 months, while a month (period known as J\u00e0k\u00fata Ol\u00f3yin) lasts 28 days, and a week, four days. Logically, the celebrations, as in ancient times, are due to the harvests, hence the new yam harvest is celebrated in Yoruba lands on different dates, depending on the tradition of each town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the J\u00e0k\u00fata Ol\u00f3yin farmers and hunters return to the city with their families and the chiefs gather in the palace. Each boss is greeted with ogi (a hot porridge) mixed with \u00f2yin (honey). From there the name Ol\u00f3yin is derived. Shango’s followers dedicate one day a week to propitiate this Orisha. That day is known as \u00d2s\u00e8 S\u00e0ng\u00f3 J\u00e0k\u00fata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the celebration of the new year in Koso, the World Festival in Shango continues. All the programming can be found exclusively in If\u00e1 Tradicional Pro and Oj\u00fa Od\u00f9. Users of the application will also be able to enjoy exclusive images and videos of the New Year celebration for followers of Shango.<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, August 16, at midnight in Koso a new year began for the followers of Shango (S\u00e0ng\u00f3), Orisha Yoruba of fire and thunder. The New Year [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2699],"class_list":["post-3967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"yoast_head":"\n