I witnessed the 45th birthday party of a friend today

The interesting things I know about ceremony is that it brings people together, promote people's culture and encourage sharing among one another.

Today is my first time gracing an occasion of another tribe with different culture as well. This woman here is my neighbor and my friend here in Lagos State, Nigeria. There are three major ethnic groups in Nigeria: Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba. I am from the Igbo tribe but reside in Lagos State (Yoruba tribe). I have been learning Yoruba to avoid so many communication barriers, but I am not there yet. The celebrant is from the Yoruba tribe, and many of the invited guests are Yoruba. Due to the language barrier, I didn't get to hear most of what was said during the ceremony, but I still enjoyed my stay while learning their culture.

The first stage of the event was to pray for the celebrant and declare positive words upon her life. There was a traditional song and dance that accompanied this stage with their local drum.

After that, they served the invited guests food and drinks. This was the time I saw one of Yoruba food called "Ewedu". According to them, it's a nutritious meal of which they hold in high esteem. This is the image of Ewedu, it's a soup used for different types of swallows like semovita , pounded yam, etc.

Well, I couldn't eat it, looking it at, it looked strange 😂...this is not how my tribe soup looks and it was difficult for me e to even taste it so I requested for rice

As you can see, there is a grey looking meal inside my rice. This is beans pudding (moi-moi), it shouldn't have that colour but I figured out that maybe yorubas have a way of preparing the meal specially so I still ate the food. While I was busy understanding their tribe food,, watching closely to know what I was about to eat...

my fellow women were devouring their food 😉

Within a short time,the food and drink stage was over and it was time for the dancing and other fun activities. So the celebrant changed into a more free attire ready for the dance. Most of the song they played over there was basically Yoruba songs but trust me, I danced to the tune even though I wasn't hearing their language.

I took some shots with the celebrant

There were some of her friends in uniform who really made the event a colourful one. They made a portrait of her as a gift plus other material gift including cash.

The husband married three wives and it was good to see him celebrate his last wife in this manner, perhaps his most precious wife.

Everyone who graced the occasion received a customised gift. I guess they spent so much money for this event. In as much as we gifted her some gift , especially money, she tried in sharing this beautiful gifts to us as well

I received mine, opened the content and it was wow ..lol

Overall, it was a fun-filled day in the event. I danced to their cultural dance to my capacity, learn more about Yoruba culture and had the opportunity to meet other women over there. I can say, it's a win win for me...a memorable day Indeed.

Have you witnessed other tribes events? How was the experience?

Thanks for reading!!

Please note; all pictures are mine!