Shrine by riverside
Greetings!
First of all, the photo (one main and its zoom) you're seeing above is of a shrine close to a river. It's merely a tree tied with red and white cloth and also with white chalk or powder poured upon the tree and the ground.
The day I took this photo, I made a clearer video of it, but I deleted it because I thought I was capturing too much of it, and who knows, maybe the spirit in it might get angry and come for me. Lol. That's why I even deleted some of the closer photos and kept the distanced ones.
What is the shrine all about?
In Nigeria, rivers and water bodies are known to be possessed by marine gods. Yes, I mean all water bodies. I have seen small water bodies which I think have no deep attachment to any spirits, but hey, people still place such value there. So, in case a Nigerian is reading this and trying to counter this, maybe he or she knows a water body that has no such attachment. I'm telling you that somehow, there are people out there who place deep spiritual attachment to that water body.
This shrine, though I didn't ask its name (if it has a name), is just close to the river where I think river worshipers come and give their sacrifices.
To be sincere, these kinds of things were very rampant in the days I was living in the village because people from around the world would travel down to the river body at the end of our street to come and make sacrifices.
Visiting the river this year when I traveled home, it was surprising to see shrines still existing in the modern age. That's to tell you how people still hold dearly to the gods of the land.
I remember clearly in those days, we would be in the river swimming and enjoying ourselves, and people, non-indigenes, would come and start throwing sacrifices such as bottles of soft drinks, currency notes, kola nuts, and many other things into the river. And hey, some of us(not me) would pick all those and begin to eat with the saying that gods don't take drinks, neither do gods take money. Lol.😅 Those people putting such sacrifices would be there, and they wouldn't utter any word as to why people in the river are taking the gifts they're throwing in the water.
The ones that people were afraid of taking are the sacrifices being dropped at the shrine ground.
Why don't people take such?
It's because the shrine is physically seen and gives the thought that if you're taking anything from the shrine ground, the shrine is directly seeing you and might come after you at night. But the ones thrown in the rivers, although they know that there are gods in the river, are not seen physically, so there's no fear in that.
Non-Nigerians reading this, I would like to know if the same belief is attached to water bodies in your country. Are there shrines by the riverside? Do you guys believe that there are goddesses in the water bodies?
Thanks for reading.
Photos are mine
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
The second picture looks blurry, looks like you were afraid to get close and snap, hehe. Nevermind, who won't be afraid.
I have never seen a shrine as scary as this before, except those I see in movies.
Then go to my home town and you'll see worse.
Lol😅
I actually made a video of it at close range. I wasn't scared but I felt I was exposing too much 😅
I don't think it's only water bodies that people serve and a lot of meaning is been given to those things, especially children born in the water. My home town has a lot of these trees tied with clothes and the sight of it gives me goosebumps, I hate traveling home because of it
Hahahahah 😅
That's villages for you.
They hold in high esteem to these things
Exactly
I didn't grow up in the village but I schooled in the east and I can confirm that this is still a very common practice in most villages. People still worship gods in this way.
Even in Lagos state, it's common to see sacrificial items on the grounds in the main roads.
It's either that or people just tie red and white cloths on the trees in their farms so that thieves don't steal their crops😅. I heard of that one too.
Men I would have been so scared to take a picture of this. Bravo!
#dreemerforlife
The red and white clothes was(maybe still) common back at home when we were growing up.
They would place the clothes on their cashew tree to scare us away from plucking but hey,...no way😅
The photo?
I actually made a video at close range but out of fear, I deleted 😅
Thank you for stopping by.
Sorry for late response
We don't have anything of such in my village but there is this particular river (dried up now) it is always safe to wash and play in it but on days when an instruction is passed around the village that no one should visit the river, everyone stays back. A young boy died due to his disobedience. It was said that when the mermaids want to have their meeting or something wants to happen, the leader would visit our King in human form to warn all villagers not to go there and whoever fails to adhere would face the consequences just like that boy. #dreemport
Things dey ooo!
Our own, the goddess don't give warning. They take someone whenever they feel they want to and it sucks always. That's why parents back then, didn't allow us to visit rivers to our satisfaction. We usually sneak out to rivers.
Thank you for stopping by.
Sorry for late response
Things are really happening in different tribes.
This reminds me of my Aunt. She went to fetch water in the river at noon against the several warnings from the elders for people not to fetch water at noon. A creature pursued her back home. The following day, the river goddess went and report to the king who later summoned my father to the palace. My dad spent heavily to appease the goddess to avert any consequence for my Aunt. Since that day, I believe in the reality of these things.
#dreemerforlife
Truthfully, these things are damn real to the places having them. People that worship these shrines hold deep attachment to them.
In my place, there's an activity that warrants such appeasing of the gods if a woman sees a sacred dancing masquerade.
Thank you for stopping by.
Sorry for late response
You are welcome, bro.
Keep up the good work. 👏🎵
Dear beloved Hive creator,
Coding poet Gudasol here to support you sharing your art + life on Hive.
As a fellow creator, I know how hard it is to get the word out there.
I built cXc.world to help creators like us get more support from the blockchain community + beyond.
Share your music on cXc.world, and copy the Markdown for a easy post includes embedded players for Spotify, Youtube, Soundcloud.
That way, you can earn HIVE + stack streams on centralized platforms, as they do still matter.
Not a music creator? No problem. You can still use cXc.world to find + share music you love.
What's next?
Preview the next evolution of cXc, Tetra.earth.
Expose local music from your area!
We're helping grassroots musicians, and you can too by adding their music (no sign up or WAX account required).
Join our community 🐬
Find fellow music lovers in cXc's Discord
Bad news: Saying see you later to Hive! 👋
We didn't get the needed support to continue cXc.world on Hive, as our DHF proposal lacked votes, but [Good News Everyone] cXc.world will add a Markdown copy button, allowing you to easily share your music + music you find on Hive.
For now, we're on WAX, with tools you can use to mint your own Music/Media NFT collection.
Curious about the future of Earth + ET relations? New economic systems?
Find more apps + art from Gudasol
Want to build tools like I used to share this?
I'd love to show you some tips on AI Code generation