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Homowo festival

The word Homowo is derived from two different words "Homo" meaning "Hunger" and "wo" meaning "sleep". The word "Homowo" means to hoot and jeer at hunger. It tells the story of the people who were not scared of the deadliest of natural disasters and fieriest of enemies. The tradition of Homowo started with a period of hunger leading to famine due to failure of the seasonal rains needed by crops in the Greater Accra Region, where the Ghana people predominately dwell. When the rains returned to normal, the Ghanaians celebrated by creating the Homowo festival hence it name and meanings are the traces of the event that gave birth to this colorful festival.

Background and celebrations of Homowo festiival

This colorful festival is celebrated every year with full enthusiasm and spreads a sheer cheerfulness through out the country. By celebrating this event Ghanian people keep alive their traditions and values of true people of early Ghana. The young and old are entwined with the rich drumming and dance traditions that were once a part of every day of life. The festival is characterized by rituals such as the sprinkling of "Kpokpoi" (the festival dish) to the gods and ancestors for spiritual protection, procession of twins through the principal streets, traditional drumming and dancing and general merry-making. A month before the celebration, there is a ban of noise making. A climax of the festival is that from 12 noon to 6:00pm any woman, no matter the status, should accept a hug from a man on the festival street. And this makes it a very interesting, open hearted and joyful event.

Starting of festiival

The festival starts every year with the month of May with the planting of crops just before the rainy season starts. The musicians and dancers of Homowo are living examples of the strength of African performing arts. The repertoire, featuring the yesterday, today and tomorrow of Ghanaian cultural arts, creates an acoustic and visual history of Ghana and brings the spirit alive in every Ghaian.