Nigeria

Nigeria the most populous country in Africa is ethnically, religiously and culturally diverse and has more than four hundred ethnic groups. As a result of this it becomes extremely difficult to refer to any particular religious or cultural festival to be representative of the whole country. The only festival that cuts across all ethnic, cultural and religious divides is the New Year Festival, traditionally celebrated on January 1st. New Year festival in Nigeria is celebrated with pomp and pageantry by all the people and it is the most celebrated among all festivals or religio-cultural traditions. New Year celebration used to be associated with Christian annual festival especially in the southern, western and eastern parts of the country where Christianity predominates. Lately, all other religious groups especially Muslims began to make New Year one important aspect of their festivals. This is due to two important reasons: the fact that all other religious groups have begun to sense that New Year is remarkably different from Christmas - a Christian annual religious tradition; and also due to the fact that Nigerians recently are now becoming more religiously sensitive - each religious tradition sees no reason why its members could not commemorate the New Year festival in its peculiar way and in its unique place of worship. New Year festival comes with many important features which are:
First and foremost, the New Year eve is treated differently among the different religious and cultural traditions found in Nigeria, but the important basic thing is that virtually all people see it as a “Myth of Eternal Return.” According to Mircea Eliade, “The suspension of profane time answers to a profound need on the part of primitive man….a series of parallel conceptions relating to the regeneration of time and the symbolism of the New Year.” This period is marked by different kinds of religious rituals. One of such main rituals is to offer prayers at midnight of December 31st.