LINGUOCULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE OUTDOORING CEREMONY OF THE NURSING MOTHER TO INTERCOMMUNAL RELATIONSHIP IN AWGU TOWN

Abstract

Outdooring describing certain ceremonial observances in Igbo land encapsulates "Iru Mgbede" (for married and marriageable nubile), "Ozo" title investiture, intra-and inter. communal wrestling contest (/gba Mgba), and ceremony of termination of confining a nursing mother for four weeks (or eight market days in Igboland). Outdooring of a nursing mother is a ceremony marking the end of the confinement of the nursing mother after twenty-eight days of fattening to regain lost flesh and energy. It is a children's celebration as children are formally invited to accompany the nursing mother to a nearby stream to mark her purification, reintegration and rejuvenation. The significance of this ceremony to the nursing mother, the community and the language or the people are highlighted. This paper purposes a save-our-culture awareness in order to extract highly edifying traditions being abandoned in print to tell visitors and scholars that we were once persons in their roots