MYths and legends, no matter our views about them, play important role in the explanation of phenomena, especially the inexplicable ones.   The origin of some words in human vocabulary could be traced to myths and legends. Think of words such as pyrrhic victory, Achilles heel,pandora’s box, Hobsonchoice,swords of Damocles, etc.  But are we not digressing? What, some will ask, is the relationship between the month -August- and the recall of ageless myths.

It should be noted that months of the year have their own peculiar myths that seek to explain their etymology.   It is with greatest reluctance that one is venturing into this explanation, convinced that some shallow Christians will be tempted to reject these months as having pagan connotations. January, for example, is said to be named from Janus, god of doorways and beginnings.   March, research says, represents the god of war, Mars. August! August! August! This is the eight month of the Gregorian Calender now in general use. It has 31 days.

Latinadjective

It corresponds, historians say, to the sixth month of the early Roman Republic calender, called sixtilis until 8BC, when it was renamed in honour of Augustus Caesar, the then Emperor of Rome.   Augustus, in turn, is a Latin adjective derived from the verb augere (to make greater), and the word carries the connotations of majesty and grandeur, still associated with the month.

August is an important month as testified by diverse events that occurred and still do in that month.   Important Catholic holy day of Obligation, the feast of the Assumption, is celebrated on August 15.   August 14 was the month in which the great powers declared war on one another in World War 1.   The United States of America dropped the atomic bomb, code-named Little Boy and Fat Man, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 respectively.

In our local scene, many important events in Nigeria occur in August. Some parts of the country have already started experiencing a break in rainfall, otherwise called August break. Have you pondered on why August is used to describe important and cherished visitors/events?   Hence we talk about August event, August visitor, August this and that.

August is particularly dear to the Igbo because it symbolizes fertility.   The beginning of the harvest season, when farmers reap the rewards of their hard­ work, made manifest by the fer­ tility of the earth.   This explains why New Yam Festival, among most Igbo towns, takes place in that month – August.   Plans are in top gear,  I am told, to have a single date for the new yam celebration among the Igbo.  August, again, is seriously being considered.

August, in another sense, signi­ fies unity and community development. Just like the farmer gathers the produce of his farm together, Igbo, including their womenfolk, try to gather themselves together for the purposes of renewing the bonds of unity. Disputes are settled among women. Serious breach of discipline and familial duties are sanctioned with the aim of discouraging such in future.   Fines are imposed on recalcitrant ones even as well-behaved ones are encouraged.

These, in a nutshell, explain the reasons behind August Meeting, which Igbo women highly cherish and look forward to every year. But like most human ideas that were primarily borne out of the need to enhance civilization, the concept of August Meetinghas fast fallen into disrepute that one is tempted to re-baptize it August Crisis.Truly, the crisis that August Meetingengenders rages on to a degree painfully unmendable.

We may find it hard to believe, but it is true, that women do the unthinkable in the name of preparing for August meeting.Outrageous things, only metaphysically explicable, are often associated with that day due proximately, to power tussle.

Very soon, as happens every year, stories will be told of husbands who get into trouble with their wives for being unable to provide them with the necessary equipage – new cars, expensive clothes, designers hand-bags and shoes, headgears, among other things – needed for August show off.   Some women, are even foolish enough to travel home for August Meeting in defiance of their husbands.

Stories abound of such women whose husbands asked to stay back as punishment for their disobedience. The irony of the entire thing is that these women travel longingly for the August Meeting not because of their gutility valuebut to display the latest fashion in town and to make the less privileged to talk about them.

Dailycharacteristics

Here, a woman who had par­ ticipated in many of these meetings takes us behind the scenes and into the daily characteristics of these meetings.  “Honestly, we do not achieve much as we are supposed to.  To women, it is principally a time to show off. Watching what some women wear to the meeting, you cannot, but believe that they are showcases of their husbands’ prosperity.

This urge to outclass one another in gorgeous accoutrements was the reason women now attend in uniform. Even at that, shoes, rings, hair-do, bangles,  other jewels are still seen as opportunities  to outclassone another. “Noticeable is the fact that the more gorgeously dressed women are often the ones that contribute least to the meeting. “Only to be feared at long range, any close interaction with them,” the woman that took us behind the scene con­ tinues, ”shows that what they lack in intellectual power is what they actively seek to conceal by external posturings.

“Originally, August represented majesty and grandeur.   It is about those acts that are truly ennobling.   “One of the greatest exemplifications of the month is encapsulated in the Igbo women annual August Meeting.Conceived as a forum to enhance the greatness of the Igbo nation, the concept is gradually being corrupted due to what can easily be referred to as worldliness and the misplacement of value.

“Let us all join hands in ad­ vising our women to go back to the ideals of August Meeting for the greater glory of the Igbo nation and humanity.”

By Valentine Obienyem (Opinion): Obienyem writes from Awka