CHAPTER 67
FEASTING DAYS IN A YEAR
Every kingdom had its own feasting days which were not observed by other kingdoms in the country but which applied to everyone in the country according to the custom.
However, there were obligation days which were very common to all people of Busoga and such were the days of harvesting. On these days, people of each mutala collected every kind of food which they threw on the next mutala to theirs. This was done by each mutala, after the gathering of every kind of food grown thereon. This was carried out by every mutala throughout the country and signified the offering of harvests to the gods.
There were also other similar days which were observed by everyone throughout the country. There were days when sacrifices were made to all the gods on account of the cattle which people posses in the whole country. This was after arrangements had been agreed to by all cattle owners in a particular area for a particular day on which to prepare a feast to be offered to the gods for their cattle. Seven days before the selected day for the feast, all the herdsmen together with some old men and young boys transferred their herds of cattle to another place near a swamp and stayed there for those seven days preparing their cattle. The milk which was obtained from these cows during their transfer was not sent home to the people who owned them but taken by the people who stayed away and looked after the cattle. No head of cattle was allowed to remain at home at that time of sanctification except if it was sick.
On the seventh day these cattle owners sacrificed beer, hens or goats and so the feast was performed in recognition of sanctifying their cattle. This was done yearly throughout the country but because the counting of months was unknown, it was impossible to know the particular period during which this was observed. Normally it was carried out approximately during the period between the months of October and December when drought had just begun.
The Harvest Feast used to take place during the month known as ‘Nabitereke’ (May) every year. This feast was not the same as that of offering food to the gods because this one was staged for the people themselves to eat the result of their harvests of the year when the food crops had become due for harvesting.
Before the feast day came, the senior chief of the area went among his people notifying them that on a particular day ‘we shall celebrate the year’s feast’ which meant they would eat the first yields of the years crops. When the day broke, all the fireplaces in the homes with fire known as old fires were destroyed completely and the ashes removed from the fireplaces and poured on the roads to signify that the fires of the old year had been completely burned out. After that the people went to their chiefs where the feast had been arranged. Each person presented something which he could afford to contribute to the feast, such as a hen or a goat, and the chief offered two or more head of cattle, as he could afford.
When all the people had gathered there, the chief instructed a good dry log and a small piece of a nice dry stick to be brought. Then, a hole would be made in the log and a small rag of barkcloth, rounded at one end of the small stick, was turned briskly into the hole in the log by a strong person until smoke came from the hole. He continued to turn vigorously until the rag had caught fire. Then the rag was removed from the stick and placed on dry grass which lighted the first fire to be used to cook their food at the new year’ feast. Then the cattle, goats and hens brought for the occasion would be slaughtered and their meat, as well as other food, would be cooked on that fire. After the feast, everyone went back home carrying some fire from the main new fire to start a new fire at home, as the old fire had been destroyed.
This kind of feasting used to take place once every year, and when it came to an end, the senior chief would issue an order instructing the people to have all roads well cultivated. When that had been done, the chief would start inspecting them and if he found someone who had not cultivated his part of the road, such a person was fined according to his rank in chieftainship, sometimes even being dismissed.