Easter Customs In Germany And Nigeria

Easter is a Christian festival celebrated in all Christian nations. Easter festivity takes place at the end of a-40 day fasting and prayer activity among Christians. However, the Easter idea itself is a feast that hardly falls on the same date each year. I may not really be able to say much about the irregularity of the date. 

Not many people believe in the idea of Easter festivity due to doctrinal issues and difference. The Easter festive celebrations in Nigeria are heralded by Palm Sunday, a period depicting the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. During this period,Christians whose doctrinal beliefs align with this period go to church. In some churches, people assemble on the street with palm branches, and in sober reflection, as a form of commemorating the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. The presiding priest or pastor reiterates the selfless sacrifice Christ made for the church and His suffering for humanity. Some Nigerian Christians, when the Easter service is over, will go on the streets waving homemade palm branches, dancing and singing ‘hosanna in the highest’. Some also achieve various crafts using the palm branches, in their homes, as a symbol of His (Jesus) thorn crown.

On good Friday, the people forbid eating of meat and fish or any of such food with blood. It is usually a dedicated belief that shares in the sufferings and death of Christ when his blood was shed through crucifixion. Some churches hold various vigil or drama programmes, where the people act or imitate the passion of Christ. As part of what looks like reality in the programmethat same day, someone is dramatically nailed on the cross, acting out the reality of the role of Jesus. It is always interesting though to see a black Jesus. What a great faith! 

On Easter Sunday, the people clad in colorful attires to church expressing their joy and thanksgiving for the resurrection of Christ Jesus. The white garment churches (Aladura) also parade in their garments with sound of music filling the air accompanied by other instruments to make a joyful sound to the risen LORD!

On Easter Monday, some churches celebrate at the beach. They gather together to make a joyful, noisy shout in rapid succession with the restless wave of the beach, saying Christ has risen and has appeared to them. Easter celebrations are big Christian festival in Nigeria.

However, Easter celebration in Germany comes with different varieties. These varieties are celebrated on different Easter days. On Easter Sunday, children are tasked to search the garden for a nest containing variety of Easter gift items such as eggs, chocolates, rabbit candy etc. These nets containing these varieties are hiding by parents as a form of surprise and Easter treats for children to experience.

Asides that, Easter is also celebrated in churches as a form of appreciation and commemoration, it also serves as a tie that strengthens The German’s family bonds as members of the same family come together to eat on either Easter Sunday or Monday. 

As part of the German Easter tradition, the celebration of Easter is always heralded by blossoming spring flowers and various traditional Easter trees decorated with different colourful painted eggs, as a symbol of newness of life. The various bright colours are symbolic of sunlight and growth. This practice has become a custom that started centuries ago. Other attractive fun-filled Easter celebration is the Easter rabbit, Easter bunny, which symbolizes fertility.

Though Easter celebration and festivity begins with Good Friday (Karfreitags),the German families avoid eating any blood-carrying meats in the spirit of solidarity with the death of Christ by eating fish, egg or spinach, which is traditional Good Friday lunch. Easter Saturday is a floor Easter market where handcrafted Easter eggs, a special Easter treat, is found. 

The German families treat themselves to a good Easter lunch, which is the German traditional Easter food, after Easter Sunday church service. These foods include lamb, potatoes and fresh vegetables. On the evening of Easter Monday, each family comes together to drink coffee and eats Easter cakes. All these are significant and a commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Praise God he is risen from the dead! Hallelujah!

Immigration Reasons For My Tears...

Immigration is becoming one of the world's biggest problem today. Migration is as old as the world, even when there were no any means of transportation, people still have freer movement, where people moved from one state to another mainly by walking or trecking. For instance, in Africa (Nigeria) according to the history of human settlement, some people emigrated from Ile-Ife to other parts, these people did not have any means of modern transportation system, they trekked from one far distance to another. However, in time past people emigrate for different reasons; some of the major reasons were war, famine or natural disasters; but today terrorism and abject poverty are some reasons of emigration. One can say, people have been moving before the creation of borders or existence of  any nation.

Recently I have been thinking if they will be any solution to the issue of illegal migration, but sadly even if there were, it would not be enough to fully eradicate or reduce the number of illegal immigrants smuggled into the EU each year, it would take a long time and a lot of money and this may even affect the economy of the European nation. So, I think to tackle the problem of Immigrants; first is to end the wars in all the nations where there are constant wars and to eradicate poverty completely from the third world countries (undeveloped). But unfortunately no one can eradicate poverty completely from the face of the earth. Even in the time of Jesus there were poor people; "the poor you will always have in your midst"- Jesus said. 

No one can tell what will happen to these people who constantly seek asylum and what they passed through just to be saved or to have their daily bread. I heard some of the African Immigrants go through to get to Europe in the desert. For example, the number of asylum seekers: of Nigerians who arrive in Europe, has increased in the last years, and even though the chances of being granted asylum are minimal for Nigerians, the numbers contiune to rise; many of them travel from Benin city via Togo, Niger, Libya through the desert to cross the Mediterranean to Italy by boats. Many of them died in the desert and some of them meet their end in the Mediterranean. 

According to one Asylum seeker from Nigeria, she explained her experience in the desert, how they were starved for months without good food and water. Many of them died on the road as a result of starvation, some were bitten by scorpions and snakes in desert and died from the poison of these animals. And some died in the cold water of the Mediterranean from Libya; because they could not swim.

 "I will never advice anyone to go through this means, it is dangerious, and it is map that leads to early grave"- said Sofia Johnson an Asylum seeker from East Africa. 

There are no wars in Nigeria but people are leaving the country as a result of Hardship, Abject Poverty and Insurgency in some parts of the country. Nigeria is one of the richest countries in Africa but the government has failed to use her resources to develop the country. Personally, I can only imagine my 5 hours flight from Lagos to Frankfurt Airport each time I have travelled before I settled down in Germany. I cannot comprehend how the journey of 5 hours turns into 1095 days (3 years) in the wilderness to Europe. 

Speaking, to some Asylum seekers in the Tafel where I did some Volunteer work, some of them even see me as asylum seeker, as many believe all Blacks (Africans) came to Europe by boat, I have had encounters where people questioned me of how I emigrated to Germany? Anyway, I did not come to Germany as asylum seeker. I am a legal immigrant too. 

My Sweet and Bitter Experiences at the Tafel during my volunteer work; the Tafel is an organization where the refugees or Asylum seekers in Germany come to buy raw food stuffs for "1€  to 2 €", and there is also a clothing section for the two fashion seasons: Spring/Sommer and Fall/Winter. I volunteered to work with the Tafel, when I met one of the boss Barbara Böckmann who told me about the Tafel.

 All the volunteers usually line up on a front roll to wait for the customers as they call each customers by their number for the day. The store is usually open Tuesday to Friday but only sell on Wednesday and Fridays the other days are for sort the products. I enjoyed working with the people, as it was quite interesting and educative. Some of the fellow volunteers were really nice and friendly, while some did not really like black people from Africa, I did not know why; but often they would ask me questions like ''Are you from America''? And when I say no, ''I am a Nigerian from Africa'', their countenance towards me changes. That was nothing for me. My godmother is a white American and she once told me, that I should look for a voluntary job, to help my community.

It gave me joy to help others but the Arab refugees made me weep so many times; I did not know why, but whenever they assigned a customer to me, they would always insist on a German (white) to serve them. I am also a German citizen but unfortunately no one recognized me as a German, they would rather see me as a poor Africa child because of the colour of my skin.

I told my husband about my experiences at the Tafel and he advised me to resign. I worked for one year and on my last day of work same thing repeat itself, on this day I summoned up courage not to cry but leave, so I told the bosses and my fellow volunteers of my resignation.

I am writing this because I have always reported about the evil and wicked acts of politicians of my country (Nigeria), and I will be falling in my duties if I did not write or report about how I was mistreated at the Tafel by some customers...

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything"- Albert Einstein. 

Germany has played a big role in the immigration crisis; Germany took over 1 million refugees and they are all living in good and better conditions; as they are given shelter, food, clothes and every other provisions including their healthcare. 

Also, Non Governmental Orgarnisation (NGOs) like the Tafel played a major role in catering for the Asylum seekers or refugees in Germany.

The European and America Government, can only find a way to reduce the number of illegal immigrants because global migration has come to stay, it will remain a fact of life on earth. No government can stop Immigration, not even by building high or big or giant borders or walls. 

Thanks to Barbara Böckmann, you are woman of virtue, don't change who you are, and thanks to all the real souls, my fellow volunteers at the Tafel. I love you all. Shalom!

German Carnival And Nigerian Lagos Carnival

Every year before the easter celebrations is the carnival in Germany. The carnival usually starts with the 'fastnachtskampagne'. It is usually done indoor officially with the committee of the carnival, and they have some politician in attendant who also dress up in costumes. This usually takes place between November 11  at 11:11 AM (11th month, day, hour, and minute). And it runs till 'Ash Wednesday' which makes it 46  days before Easter Sunday. In some part of Germany the street carnival comes up on Rose Monday (Rosenmontag),here in Grünstadt the carnival is celebrated on Tuesday "Faschingdienstag". The Street Carnival is always colourful, as the young and older people dresses up in carnival costumes to participate in the carnival as all the participants walk across the main street in colourful costumes. Some of them go 
in a carnival wagon or trucks with music, food, and other gift items such as; candy, popcorn and so on. They throw these items at the people standing along the street to cheer them up. 

Grünstadt Street Carnival takes place today, as all the carnival clubs members parades in beautiful costumes. Starting from the Grünstadt City Hall. Although the weather was not so nice, raining and very cold but this couldn't stop the carnival, and the people still have their fun. The groups parades start at 2:20pm. 

This is also the first time for me to take part in the celebrations of carnival here in 
Germany. Most times I just watched the people as they paraded in their beautiful costumes but today I took pride in using few carnival costumes to honour the occassion. I also learned that Carnival is a christian festivity that takes place in many Roman Catholic countries in the last days and hours before the Lenten period. 

Lagos Carnival Nigeria. 

In Nigeria some christians do not really celebrate carnival because they believe carnival is a pagan festival. However, there are people who still celebrate carnival in Nigeria even though they don't really know the origin of the festival, in Africa (Nigeria and Rwanda). For example, in Nigeria, there are different kind of carnivals across the country. The two famous carnivals, is the Calabar carnival and the Lagos carnival. These two carnivals are well known internationally. But I will like to talk more about the Lagos carnival because I was born and raised in Lagos Nigeria as a child. So, Lagos carnival also known as the "Fanti Carnival" of Lagos Island it usually folks festival which holds annually in Lagos, the carnival celebrations is totally different from what we see here in Germany. 

According to Mr Oladokun James, a Lagosian and a civil servants, he explained the origin of the Lagos carnival. The  carnival is said to have been dates back to the Lagos colonial period when the Brazilian former slave returnees came back to reside in Lagos in the 19th Century.The event is usually centred on Lagos Island, filled with carnival trucks displays of beautiful costumes and various forms of entertainment including music and dancing. The carnival portrays a taste from a broad and diverse range of source mixture of Nigerian and Brazilian heritage.

Fanti carnival was brought to Lagos Island by the Brazilians who settled down around Campos area of Lagos Island here in Lagos state Nigeria. The names of the families behind the carnival is the Da souza family and Kanaku family. There are two well known carnival groups on the Lagos Island which are the Lafiaji carnival with a red and white costume and the Campos (Brazilians)  carnival with a gold and green costume , although, there are some other carnival groups,and they are as follow;  Epetedo carnival with a blue and white costume, Olowogbowo carnival with a yellow
and white costume, Okoo-faji carnival with a red,green and white costume, Obalende 
carnival with blue and yellow costume and Isale-Eko woro carnival with green and white costume.The carnival is just to catch fun all around the local community and it gives a chance of meeting new friends and loved ones  within and outside Nigeria, because people travel down to have fun too from abroad and it even serves as a tourist attraction to Lagos state, beacuse the carnival comes up just three times in a year; The christmas day, New year celebration and the Easter celebration.

The only flaws attached to it was the battle of supremacy amongst the two major carnival groups which so many times turned to serious violence,injury to the party, and lost of properties most of the times: and that led to the government intervention and was later hijacked by the state government during the Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola administration and was later rebranded to "Lagos carnival", However, there are carnival in other local government areas of Lagos state; for instance, the Ojo Local Government Area Street Carnival usually comes up during the Easter period. 
This is unlike the Lagos carnival where people put on beautiful costumes, in Ojo carnival only the Carnival Queen dresses up in a gorgeous and beautiful costume, every other person only wear customize T-shirts to celebrate the occasion. And also, everyone of the organizers of the carnival are expected to pay some amount of money for the carnival celebrations. Moreso, the carnival organizers will close some 
part of the streets and collect money from car and bus drivers who use the road on this day for a good will project.  

Festivals are one of the oldest traditions of mankind, There are other festivals that is similar to carnival that is been celebrated in some African countries. Most of the African peoples were brought to the Caribbean as slaves from countries in West and Central Africa; and this include Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Ivory Coast and so on. And today some people in Nigeria take part in this Caribbean festival and other rituals. This Caribbean tradition is practice among the Yoruba people in Nigeria, as they see it as strong civilisation and socialisation. 

Another example of such festivals is the "Kwita Izina" Event in Rwanda. Speaking with Solange Buch from Sausenheim, a native of Rwanda who immigrated to Germany by marriage some years ago, and a Kindergarten teacher. She said there are no carnival celebration in Rwanda, that the first time she witnessed a carnival was in Germany. During one of the Grünstadt Street Carnival and in this time she has no Knowledge about carnivals since she has not seen such in her country. Although the Rwandan celebrate other traditional festivals such as; FESPAD, Umuganura, and Kwita Izina. 

 

As for me, I have never partook in any carnival in Nigeria because my father always advised us his children to stay at home during such festival because it could lead to violence. Carnivals are meant to be fun but in the case of Nigerian carnival, this could lead to violence and lost properties and serious injury without any compensation from the Government to the affected victims. I have never be a fan of carnival, until my childhood love for social events like carnivals and other festivals was rekindled through my participation in the German's carnival. How sweet! To see the people on the carnival floor singing and laughing. 

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days"- (Colossians 2:16). 

Let us preserve our heritage because our cultural heritage is the mirror to the world. No matter where we go, our culture goes with us because culture never die. Culture is the identity of a person or a nation. Not even the rain or the cold weather could stop the street carnival from taking place today, how cool! To see the people who know the importance of culture or carnival. I also noticed that the event is like a social meeting where people could use the opportunity to advertise their products and shows. 

Halau! Helau! Helau! Is the greetings on carnival days in Germany!

Nigerian Social Media Celebrity Laura Ikeji Weds Ogbonna Kanu Today In Her Hometown in Nkwerre, Imo State Nigeria.

Laura Ikeji's traditional wedding to Ogbonna Kanu today in her hometown, Nkwerre, Imo State, Nigeria. Ogbonna is the brother to one of the Nigerian footballer Kanu Nwankwo, and Ogbonna is a retired footballer as well.

The couple recently had their court wedding at the Ikoyi registry, Lagos. (19.01.2017)

Linda Ikeji, Laura's sister shared some lovely photos of the bride traditional wedding today. Check out more photos of the beautiful bride in her African attire below...

Nigerian celebrity entertainment news, wedding 2017.
Photo credit: Linda Ikeji....

Meet 14 Year Old Nigerian-American Zuriel Oduwole Meets US Secretary of State

Outgoing United States  Secretary of State, Mr John Kerry recently met with 14 year old filmmaker and girl education advocate, Zuriel Elise Oduwole in his office at the State Department in Washington DC.

Kerry commended Zuriel for the "clarity of purpose" in her fight for girl education in Africa through her 'Dream up, Speak Up, Stand Up' project and film making...

According to CNN report, Zuriel's life was forever changed when she entered a film contest at her school. Her film was about the Ghana revolution. However, she received international praise upon the release of her 2014 documentary. "A Promising Africa" is the first in an ongoing series which will profile five African nations starting with her father's homeland of Nigeria.

Zuriel Oduwole is the youngest filmmaker in the world. She learn how to film and edit online. She is only 14 year old, but she is far from the regular kids that we know. At age 11, she made history as the youngest person to ever be interviewed on Forbes.

Zuriel is a female education advocate and film maker and in 2014, at age 12, she became the world youngest filmmaker to have a self produced and self edited work. "I learned how to produce and edit film online".

She has met 23 Presidents and Prime Ministers in line with her education advocacy. She was also listed in the New African Magazine's list of 100 most influential people in Africa.

Here on this platform Queendaline's blog is to inform and inspire the young people of her generation and generations yet to come. May I say this, if you are living in Nigeria currently or any part of the world, and you have good education and Data access you can start learning. It is never too late to learn or start a new thing in life.

Don't forget Barack Obama retired as the US President at age 55, and Donald Trump became the 45th US President at the age of 70. We all can live a life of purpose.

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it"- proverbs 22:6

Photo credit: Zuriel's Facebook page.

Why Do Successful People Believe in Self Belief ?

Why do most successful people says, 'believe in yourself'? I used to say that too before, and I have be advocating for 'Self Belief' until recently during one of my Quite Time; I heard a still voice saying to me why believe in yourself?

It is a good thing for us to have dreams and think big, but believing in yourself could be positive and negative. Dreams could be reffered to as one expectation of achieving great success. Which the bible is not against, for the scriptures says the expectation of the believer will not be cut off: which means if the righteous does not have any dreams or expectations it is very dangerious because God promises to give the righteous all his heart desires.

So in all your dreams or expectations be conscious of God as your helper and speak always positive things to yourself. When I was a child, I was in love with writing. For me, I knew even though I didn't go to school, I will still be a Writer. I believe in my God given Talent; I finished my elementary class in the year 1996, and I could'nt go to the High School due to my mother illness. My mummy was very sick, and the sickness leads to her death in 1997. I could'nt go to Secondary School until after three years of staying at home. When other children in my  neighborhood go to school I will locked myself up in the room and started reading the bible and my elder brother Text Books; after reading I will write a story from what I have read. Even when I fellowed my cousins to sell smoked-fish  at Iyana-Iba Market, I often go with my pen and paper to write down my story telling. At one point I wrote a lot of inspirational messages about life in my book, and I titled it 'My little book of happiness'.

I remember when one of my big cousin advised me to go and learn fashion designing; since there are no means of furthing my education, I said no that I want to go to school. Because I love education but in my humble opinion, I was believing in myself and trusting God for his provision. There is nothing wrong in trusting God, and having confidence in yourself but the moment you give too much self praise for all your achievements, is very dangerious.

Recently I read an article from one American Pastor on "You have to start believing in yourself more than you believe in God". That message actually shook my faith; Do God really exist? Is the bible story real or it is just imaginative story? What do I get if I believe in God? Why do those who believe in self belief are the most successful people in the world today? All these were the questions running through  my head.

I have always attended church services and when i'm confronted with false teachings, I go for more scriptures research:

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me"- Said Jesus Christ in the book of John 14:1

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding"- proverbs 3:5

"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered"- proverbs 28:26

There are no any place in the bible that says, "Believe in yourself more than you believe in God", the book of Philippians says "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"- It is not a boast of self belief, Paul was confessing the power and authority of Christ through him. I remember at one time I was having a conversation with a friend and we spoke about believing in yourself, and my friend asked a question that I couldn't answer, "Do you think is because we prayed in the name of Jesus that made our prayer to be answered or because we believe in something". She said. I told her all I know is that God is real, and I believe that when I approach my life as a laborer in the vineyard and as a child of God he will directs my steps. It means when I do anything and I succeed it means God helps me: it is through God that I can do all things and I believe in him more than I believe in myself. Man will fail but God cannot fail.

However, belief is something powerful and that is why the bible says without faith no man can please God. And this applies also to human belief, that when we put our mind on something and believe in it we are likely to get what we want and this is where the 'Law of attraction' comes in but the question here now is; should we start believing in ourselves more than we believe in God? Should we remove our belief in God and replace it with the law of attraction and other rules that has worked for others?

Anyway, like I said earlier believing in yourself could be positive and negative; the positive side of it is when we learn to understand that God is our helper and do not boast of self belief. The negative side is when we replace God with our intelligence for all our achievements and this could also lead to the fall of man; for example, Adolf Hitler believe so much in himself, he became a messianic figure and have his own followers ( Nazi). Today, there are still few people alive from the Nazi era, and this people are growing more members... Another example, is Lucifer (Satan) he believe he could even do battle with The Almighty GOD. Self belief is pride, when you see people boasting of their achievements perhaps the pride of this world has blinded their mind.

Don't forget in all your getting, please get wisdom. I have said this before and I will say it again here, I don't believe in myself, because God is my belief. Without God the purpose of man existence will be in vain. Do you get?

Why did Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye Retired?

Pastor E.A Adeboye has retired as the general overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, but he remain the international overseer of the RCCG. Few years ago there was so much discussion, as some members of the council of the church wants him to retired. I could remember in 2012, we prayed against that, but now it has finally happend but i'm glad he is still part of the church, on the international level. 

Pastor Joseph Osuolale Obayemi has been named as the new general overseer of RCCG Nigeria. Obayemi who was a deputy in charge of Finance and a member of the governing council of the church. However, Pastor Adeboye agreed to step down as the general overseer in Nigeria but he still the general overseer globally. 

Pastor Adeboye is a highly respected and educated man is currently 74 years old. He had his B.Sc in Mathematics at University of Nigeria Nsukka and got his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Lagos, and worked as lecturer at University of Ilorin. He joined the RCCG in 1973; he worked in the church as translator of Pa Josiah Olufemi Akindayomi from yoruba into English. Rev. Josiah who was the founder of the church also claimed God showed him that the man that will be his successor will be highly educated and when he saw Pastor Adeboye for the first time he said it that he will be his successor when he died. 

In 1980 Pa Akindayomi founder of the RCCG died and in 1981, Pastor Adeboye was appointed aus the General Overseer of the church. The church was not known before Adeboye became the General Overseer, and Pastor Adeboye worked tiredless, has the church has branches in about 190 countries, including more than 14,000 parishes in Nigeria alone. One of the goal of the church according, to Pastor Adeboye is to plant a church within five minutes walking distance of  every person on Earth. 

The church is one of the fastest growing pentecostal in the world no doubt. 

According to one of the member of the church, says that Pastor Adeboye announced his retirement during the Annual Ministers Thanksgiving as the overseer of RCCG in Nigeria. Stating that this is sequel to the new legal requirements set up by the Financial Regulations Council, guiding all registered churches, mosques, that they now have a maximum period of twenty years to lead their organizations. And they are not permitted to hand over to any member of their family.

Pastor E.A Adeboye remains the General Overseer of RCCG Worldwide. 

May the almighty God contiune to strengthen Pastor Adeboye and peace to the church!