Egungun

Embodying the ancestors

Yoruba belief holds that ancestors keep an ongoing watch over the living, urging families to maintain high ethical standards. During annual ceremonies called Odun Egungun or private domestic rituals, priests and trained initiates invoke departed spirits. Dancers in full masquerade enter a state of possession, acting as a single ancestral entity. Through mime, movement, and drama, the performers reenact local events and critique community behaviour. They expose misconduct and celebrate good deeds, before speaking directly to onlookers with spiritual counsel, protection, and blessings.

The sacred garments

The costume, or ensemble, transforms the dancer into a spirit. Its innermost layer is a fitted sack woven from indigo and white strip-cloth known as aso-oke, echoing a traditional burial shroud. Mesh netting covers the face and hands so no living identity is visible. Outer layers feature flying strips of fine fabric called lappets, decorated with sequins, braids, shiny metal, and tassels. Concealed inside are medicinal charms that shield the performer. As the dancer spins, the lappets flare outward, spreading what observers call a breeze of blessing.

Lineage and roles

Masking societies consist of family lineages with inherited rights to stage specific masquerades. While men perform the physical masking, women hold vital responsibilities throughout the ritual. Elder women offer prayers, make invocations, and present offerings to the spirits. Women also sing praise poetry known as oriki, recounting clan genealogies and town history to accompany the drummers. Lineages collaborate with diviners, tailors, and herbalists to maintain their costumes, storing the sacred robes carefully until the next gathering.

Festivals and spread

During the days of the Odun Egungun festival, masquerades parade through markets and neighbourhoods, drawing together people of diverse faiths. Each lineage is allocated its own day to present its figures, guarded by costumed attendants who manage the crowds. Specific ancestral figures hold regional prominence, such as Alapansanpa in Ibadan or Elewe in Igbomina towns. Outside Nigeria, Yoruba diaspora communities in Brazil also sustain active houses of worship and ceremonies dedicated to the ancestors.

How Egungun is kept

An Egungun festival unfolds over several days. Before the public dances, family elders and initiated priests offer prayers and invoke the spirits. Masked dancers, completely covered in layered textiles and facial mesh, proceed into town squares and market spaces accompanied by drummers and praise singers. As the maskers spin and mime recent local events, they expose wrongdoings and impart ancestral blessings. Attendants maintain space between the performers and the crowd. Each lineage takes its assigned day to dance before the garments are stored away.

When and where

The festival takes place once a year over multiple days. Individual family rites and ancestral remembrances are also held at other times as determined by lineage elders or spiritual divination.

Egungun is centred across southwestern Nigeria, including towns like Ibadan, Oyo, and Ogbomoso. Dedicated shrines and ancestral traditions are also observed across the Atlantic, notably in Brazilian communities.

What Egungun means

To the Yoruba, cloth signifies dignity, wealth, and civic maturity, whereas nakedness denotes childhood or disorder. The costume reflects this idea by joining hidden base layers with decorative outer fabrics, uniting the spirit realm of Orun with the physical world. Whirling fabric strips represent sweeping winds of fortune, and the masquerade itself reinforces moral accountability between the living and their forebears.

Questions people ask about Egungun

See also

KwanzaaA seven-day African American celebration of heritage, family and community valuesGeledeA Yoruba masked dance festival honoring the spiritual power of mothers and social harmony.Eyo FestivalA Yoruba masquerade procession honouring departed leaders and royalty in LagosIgbo New Yam FestivalA harvest thanksgiving and feast marking the first yam crop among the Igbo of Nigeria

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Nigeria's Egungun festival: Colour, culture and communityBBC, Article
• Nigeria's Egungun festival: Colour, culture and communityBBC, Article

• Egungun on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-04.