06/06/2026
Approximately on June 6th, an annual festival to honor ancestral spirits begins in Nigeria; this week long festival consists of street dancing, offerings of food and gifts to the Egungun (representing the collective spirits of departed ancestors returning to the human realm to bless, guide, correct, and protect their descendants), and ecstatic trance. In Yoruba cosmology, death is not the end; ancestors remain active participants in the lives of the living. Egungun makes this spiritual relationship tangible.
In Thrace, a festival called the Bendidia was held each year on this date dedicated to the lunar goddess Bendi- an ancient Thracian goddess of the moon, the wilderness, and the hunt. Embodying an earthy and vibrant duality, she is traditionally depicted holding two spears, wearing a fox-skin cap, and surrounded by enthusiastic, wild processions.
