Osun Osogbo: Arugba at the Osun Shrine.
The figure at the centre of Osun worship is the votary maid called Arugba, which literally means ‘calabash bearer.’ On the final day of the Osun Osogbo festival, the day of the procession, the maid is responsible for bearing the sacrificial calabash from the Osun temple in the palace to the sacred grove where the content is thrown into River Osun. Surrounded by a teeming crowd, the votive supplicant begins her journey from the palace, after a ritual has been performed, guided all the way by Baba Olosun and other former Arugba, urged by the prayers of a tide of crowd flowing around her to the grove and back to the palace. Arugba is often a teenager, a member of the royal family and a virgin who will for a number of years remain chaste while she bears the calabash. For her role, society accords her high respect. Once, she relinquishes her role, the very night she bears the calabash for the last time, she is betrothed and heads straight to marital life. She joins the band of ex votary maids who perform ceremonial functions at Osun ceremonies in the temple and in the society.
Size: 5760px × 3840px
Location: Osun State, Nigeria.
Photo credit: © OMONIYI AYEDUN OLUBUNMI / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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