Egúngún (Masquerade Dance Costume)

At Yorùbá celebrations and funerals, departed ancestors visit their descendants in the guise of extravagant and eye-catching masquerades called egúngún. A visual homage to the wealth and status of an ancestor, this egúngún displays an intricate patchwork of patterns, braids, sequins, tassels, and amulets of expensive and prestigious textiles. All these elements were carefully chosen and consecrated by the ancestor’s living descendants, as well as priests, tailors, and herbalists.

When an ancestor’s spirit arrives in the masquerade, it twirls through an assembled crowd. The egúngún’s lappets fly out, revealing the many layers underneath. The innermost layer, resembling an indigo and white striped cloth used as a funerary wrap, metaphorically binds together the living and the ancestors. In this way, egúngún also serves as a point of spiritual communication: responding to choices made by the living, the egúngún may educate, protect, warn, or chastise those in its presence.