New Yam Festival

What it is

Yam is a tuber crop grown across West Africa, and in Nigeria it is a staple food and a marker of wealth. The New Yam Festival is the celebration that opens the eating of the season's new crop. Almost every ethnic group in Nigeria keeps some form of it. Until the festival is held, tasting the new yam is a taboo, because the harvest is offered in thanks to the gods of the harvest and the earth. The Igbo name for the festival is Iri ji, and it is also called iwaji, ịrị jị or ivejioku.

Origins and history

Reports of the festival among the Igbo go back to the 1800s. Writers have long noted how closely Igbo farming life is bound to the yam. In Benin City, accounts survive from centuries ago, quoted by Roth in 1903, not long after the Kingdom of Benin was destroyed. Those reports describe a king planting an old yam in a pot of soil, then being shown a pot holding a fine new yam instead, as a sign of his power over the crops. The size difference was read as a promise of the harvest to come.

How it is kept

Igbo communities hold the festival at the start of the new yam harvest. It is a season when people travel home to be with family. In the Okpe kingdom in Edo State, the king and his chiefs give the town thirteen days' notice, and the festival is called Wasigbeenile, a greeting of thanks for care given over the year. The king and chiefs come out in white, walk in procession to the village square with drumming and dancing, and prayers are said for the people's children. The day ends with a pounded yam eating ceremony.

Dress and music

Dress matters at these festivals. At Okpe the king and his chiefs wear white. In Ikere in Ekiti State, the Oba wears traditional clothing called Aso Oke with a white crown, while the Oloris, his wives, wear beads and dance before him. Drums, singers and dancers lead the celebrations there. Ogidi in Kogi State holds a week of events with masquerade performances, including the Igbabolelimin, Egungun Oniye, Igunnuko and Agbo Olode masquerades, and Gelede performers wearing masks. Hunters fire guns to announce the festivities.

Around the country

The festival takes different forms in different places. In Ikere, Ekiti State, Yoruba people call it Odun Ijesu, the festival of eating yam, and thank the orisha for the fertility of the land. Ogidi in Kogi State keeps a week of thanksgiving with cultural performances, chieftaincy investitures, awards, a novelty match, free medical checkups and an excursion to Oroke Oda mountain. In Abuja, the capital, the Nollywood New Yam Festival and Awards grew into the Nollywood Cultural Heritage Festival, where many kinds of yam are served with different sauces.

How New Yam Festival is kept

The festival comes as the new yams are lifted. Nothing from the new crop is eaten until it has been held. Igbo families gather, giving thanks for the harvest, and the day is a homecoming for people who have moved away. At Okpe the town is told thirteen days ahead that the day is coming. The king and chiefs then dress in white and lead a procession to the village square, where prayers are said, before everyone returns to the palace to eat pounded yam.

When and where

It is kept once a year, at the start of the new yam harvest. The article places the celebration at the end of June, while harvesting of new yam is said to happen in July and August. Okpe holds its festival in July. Ogidi keeps a week of events, opening with Ogidi-Ela day a few days earlier.

The festival belongs to Nigeria, where almost every ethnic group keeps some form of it. It is strongest among Igbo people in the south east, and it is also kept in Edo State at Okpe, in Ekiti State at Ikere, in Kogi State at Ogidi, and in the capital, Abuja. Ogidi's festival draws visitors from neighbouring states such as Edo, Ekiti, Osun and Lagos.

What New Yam Festival means

The festival is a way of giving thanks. Communities thank God, the gods of the harvest and the earth, or the orisha, for the crop that has come in and for the year that has passed. It is also a promise for the season ahead: in the old Benin City account, the size of the new yam stood for how large the coming harvest would be. Yam itself is a sign of wealth, and in Ogidi a good yam harvest is read as a sign that other crops will flourish too.

New Yam Festival dates: 2026, 2027, 2028

This date follows the moon or a local calendar and can move by a day, so check with a local source nearer the time.

Questions people ask about New Yam Festival

See also

Osun-Osogbo FestivalAn annual Yoruba festival of cleansing, procession and sacrifice to the river goddess Osun in Osogbo, Nigeria.GeledeA Yoruba masked dance festival honoring the spiritual power of mothers and social harmony.Durbar festivalAn equestrian gathering marking Muslim holidays across northern Nigerian emiratesEyo FestivalA Yoruba masquerade procession honouring departed leaders and royalty in Lagos

Good reading and sources

• New Yam Festivals in Nigeria on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• 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 2026-10-05.