The festival of 15 lamps.

I just had the most amazing experience.

An artist who lives in a village far outside Lagos sold me a piece of his artwork last weekend. He delivered the framed piece tonight. He carves wood into various scenes, including Biblical scenes, scenes of the African gods and scenes from his village. Then he pounds or presses tin over the carved wood to take on the form of the carving.

I bought a piece that tells the story of a festival celebrated in his village.

Once a year, the have a party. Everything is free. They light 15 lamps with cotton wool soaked in cooking oil that burn all day. They dance, they eat. They make friends. At the end of the day, the village chief mounts his horse and a village virgin carries a sacrafice to the river. I'm a little unclear on what exactly the sacrafice is, but it is so heavy that only a virgin can carry it. Any other woman would not be able to pick it up. The sacrafice represents all teh bad things that happened in the past year. The village chief pours the load (all the bad things) into the river, and the river (they believe God is in the river) carries away the bad things.

It is like an annual Baptism. Once a year, God washes away their sins.

He told this kids and I this story while we all sat on the floor of our apartment. The kids loved it. I loved it so much, I bought another tin! This one representing paradise before Eve ate the apple.