The Olokun Festival is the name of an annual cultural festival celebrated throughout Yorubaland in West Africa by Yoruba people of various sub-groups, and also by the Edo people.
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The Olokun Festival is the name of an annual cultural festival celebrated throughout Yorubaland in West Africa by Yoruba people of various sub-groups, and also by the Edo people.
01 · What it is
Living Tradition
Documented cultural tradition on record; family classification awaits an editor.
02 · Where & name
Nigeria
Placed on record in Nigeria.
03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)
Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
04 · Proof & reuse
1 cited source
Every claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is Olokun Festival in plain words?
The Olokun Festival is the name of an annual cultural festival celebrated throughout Yorubaland in West Africa by Yoruba people of various sub-groups, and also by the Edo people.
Where is Olokun Festival practised or documented?
Sources on this page place Olokun Festival in Nigeria.
What is the current condition of Olokun Festival today?
□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
How do I cite or share this Olokun Festival entry?
Cite as: "Olokun Festival." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/olokun-festival, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.
The Olokun Festival is the name of an annual cultural festival celebrated throughout Yorubaland in West Africa by Yoruba people of various sub-groups, and also by the Edo people. In the Yoruba language, okun means "sea", while osa means "lagoon". Olokun is the deity of the sea, while Olosa also known as Osara is the deity of the lagoon and estuaries. Both are celebrated and venerated in different festivals.
In Yoruba tradition, the chief Olokun shrine is located in the Ilode quarter of Ile Ife. According to the Walode of Ile-Ife Chief Kolawole Omotayo, who is the Abore (Chief Priest) of Olokun of the Source explained: “Olokun is the goddess who gathered all the water of the earth together, at creation, and moved it to its current location – the sea. At the beginning of life, the earth was formless and filled with water. Olodumare through Ọbatala, the chief Orisha, went to the world to commence the process of filling it with life. Thus Obatala, armed with igba iwa, descended from heaven through a chain. “Right from Ilode, where we stand now, the great goddess Olokun began of drawing all the water together. After this she moved everything through Ilare to a very remote part of the earth which is now the sea of today.
Among the Ilaje who live along the coastline of Ondo State, Olokun is believed to be the goddess of the sea, who has the power to give children to barren women. She is also believed to be in control of ocean waves, and she can sink sea vessels of evildoers.
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Olokun Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
Olokun Festival is festival in Nigeria, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 1
The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. 1