Festivals
Kikuyus traditionally worshipped a single god, Ngai, who was known as the provider and lived at the top of the mountain. Kikuyus believed it was their traditional god who started the Kikuyu tribe by putting on earth a man and woman named Kikuyu and Mumbi. The couple had nine daughters who later married and brought the Kikuyu tribe to life. Traditional rituals and prayers were help while facing the mountain for they believed they were facing god.
Ceremonial decorations during ceremonies / festivals and rituals
Celebrating birth in the Kikuyu tribe.
The Kikuyus have numerous ceremonies such as birth, naming, circumcision, marriage, cleansing and death respectively. The ceremonies are all celebrated with joy except for death ceremony and they believed that these ceremonies symbolized the rights of passage.
This is known as the healing ceremony in the Kikuyu culture.
Initiation ceremony in the Kikuyu culture.
Religion
The Kikuyu believed that Mt. Kenya also known as Mount Kirinyaga is a sacred mountain and Ngai is the ultimate creator. Kikuyus historically adhered to indigenous faiths, but most of them are Christians today.
Ngai is the creator and giver of all things, 'the Divider of the Universe and Lord of Nature'. He gave birth to the human community, created the first Kikuyu communities, and provided them with all the resources necessary for life: land, rain, plants and animals.
Mt. Kenya (Mount Kirinyaga) - The Sacred Mountain.
Kikuyu people pray facing mount Kenya or pray on Mount Kenya. Christians often mix aspects to get most of many cultures.
He - for Ngai is male - cannot be seen, but is manifest in the sun, moon, stars, comets and meteors, thunder and lighting, rain, in rainbows and in the great fig trees (mugumo or mugumu) that served as places of worship and sacrifice, and which marked the spot at Mukurue wa Gathanga where Gikuyu and Mumbi - the ancestors of the Kikuyu in the oral legend - first settled.Traditionally, as now, the Kikuyu were monotheists, believing in a unique and omnipotent God whom they called Ngai (also spelled Mogai or Mungai). The word, if not the notion, came from the Maasai word Enkai, and was borrowed by both the Kikuyu and Kamba.
The Kikuyu believed that god (Ngai) lived above Mount Kenya. Mountains have always been favourite places for Gods and spirits, particularly when the mountains stand on their own - Mount Ararat, Mount Fuji, and Sri Lanka's Adam's Peak are ones which come immediately to mind - and Mount Kenya is no exception.
The first Dance of the Trees, Kenya, July 22, 1922
A Kikuyu Prayer
"Revered Elder who lives on Mount Kenya, you who make mountains tremble and rivers flood, we offer to you this sacrifice that you may bring us rain. People and children are crying, sheep, goats, and cattle are crying. Mwene-ngai, we beseech you with the blood and fat of this lamb which we are going to sacrifice to you."